#might make this an actual scene in the story? we'll see ;]c

[wingedqueenlynx]

It's around 3am, but that shit ain't gonna stop me from cooking up RiddleFox art. I'm totally sane, i swear 😁

Foxy is just being cheeky with him through the cameras lol

Goofy ass dorks they are XD

[canmom]

Animation Night 173: Takashi Nakamura

Hi everyone! It's that time of the week again~

The day that puppets bite their gloves off.

Tonight on Animation Night we'll be taking a look at the works of Takashi Nakamura (中村 たかし).

Nakamura is a director who flies under the radar a bit over here, but for those who know him, he's a unique director - one who we've actually encountered a couple of times before, actually! He directed one of my favourite shorts in Robot Carnival [Animation Night 158] Chicken Man and Red Neck, in which the machinery of a city comes alive to have a violently strange Bosch-like party led by a strange red-robed robot, witnessed only by one salaryman on a moped...

...and if you remember when we looked into the three adaptations of Project Itoh's novels [Animation Night 127], he co-directed Harmony with Michael Arias, a powerfully understated film about a high tech biopower future and people who reject its utopia through a suicide pact. We also saw him in the Japan Animator Expo, with the charming Bubu & Bubulina...

But let's give a fuller story...

As an animator, Nakamura entered the industry very young, signing on as a colourist and inbetweener at Tatsunoko in 1974 - at which point he was only 16, an aspiring mangaka newly arrived in Tokyo. Working in Tatsunoko's distinctive 'industry within an industry', he was introduced to Hirokazu Ishino's 'Anidō' association, in which he was introduced to not just many important animators but also had the chance to see animation from around the world, from Norm McLaren to Japanese independent animators like Kenzō Masaoka. The two films that got him most excited were Takahata's Horus, Prince of the Sun [AN41] and Disney's Fantasia [AN15], both of which contained incredible flexes of effects animation.

(Incidentally, it makes me happy that a lot of the films Watzky mentions showing at Anidō showed up on here! Following in the footsteps of giants and all that.)

Once Nakamura got the animation bug he put aside his manga aspirations and became a key animator, going freelance a couple years later. In 1979 he saw Galaxy Express 999, and got to witness the insane 'liquid fire' effects of Kanada, and he instantly became a devotee - soon enough getting a chance to work with Kanada directly.

And by the early 80s Nakamura was definitely making a name, already working in animation direction and solo-animating entire episodes of Gold Lightan for Tatsunoko. The next couple of years he'd end up working on Nausicaa, Macross DYRL and the with Rintaro [AN53, 134] on Genma Taisen. By now he was specialising hard in effects (not unlike Anno!), and his work had become terrifyingly elaborate, look at this building collapsing into every single element or the clothes coming to the life under the power of a psychic. His work also inspired another incredibly significant animator to enter the industry - Kōji Morimoto, future cofounder of Studio 4°C - and they ended up working together on Genma Taisen.

Meanwhile on Nausicaa, Morimoto handled some of its most memorable scenes like the opening sequence where Nausicaa is pursued by the giant Ohmu. Once again you see his fascination with effects and debris, like the shot where the Ohmu explodes out of the forest, sending stalks flying in every directions. In Macross DYRL he animated the scenes of the gravity flipping sideways and a street's worth of stuff tumbling down all at once, elaborating on a scene by Itano from the TV show.

In short, if there's lots of bits of stuff flying around in a mid-80s movie, there's a good chance that Nakamura was involved somehow.

Such a focus made him a perfect fit for the 'realist school' developing in the late 80s - whyat you might loosely call the Otomo circle. You see his work on both Manie-Manie/Neo Tokyo and Robot Carnival, and naturally enough he ended up part of the team for Akira. Given what he'd already accomplished, could he somehow step it up another notch? You bet.

Going by sakugabooru comments, Nakamura's role in Akira was mainly related to two things: explosions, and animation direction. Considering how iconic the explosions in Akira are, and how challenging it was to animate Otomo's very solid and 3D designs... the success of the film depended a lot on Nakamura's insane drawing skills. Further, he was a kind of 'teacher' to the rest of the staff, such as Morimoto. But this was apparently the 'limit' for Nakamura, and after Akira he turned from creating animation for others.

And this point marks a major stylistic turn in Nakamura's work. Starting with the World Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Peter Pan, on which he worked as character designer, he adopted a highly stripped-down, simplified style. With all the Akira goodwill, he was able to pull in many of the new stars of the 'realist' school, from Okiura to Ohira. But his work became a lot less flashy, focusing more on a Disney-like approach where it's about creating a consistent sense of life rather than individual flashy sequences.

The Hakkenden [AN 122] was one of his first chances to experiment with the new style as a director, with Episode 4 really kicking off the series' trend of completely redesigning the characters according to the sensibilities of each director. He also worked on the kinda obscure but gorgeous realist-school film Junkers Come Here [AN 118] as his own film debut, Catnapped!, progressed.

So Catnapped! This is a weird movie. Many people see a Disney influence in its style, and it definitely broke the 90s trend with a younger target audience - but Disney could never make a movie filled with as much imaginative strange shit as this one. Watzky points out how much Otomo influence there is in the direction - dense environments and elaborate multiplane shots, in contrast to simple character designs which afford a lot of movement. These designs allow great animators like Okiura [AN139] (who animated most of the finale) to really go to town. There's a great para in Watzky's article on the different directions taken by the 'realist' animators.

Catnapped is a pretty short film at less that 80 minutes, a revel of visual imagination; Nakamura's next film A Tree of Palme is just as distinctive but in a different direction. It's another take on the Pinocchio story [c.f. AN138], but a very 'dark, metaphysical' one, with its biggest inspirations apparently being French - Moebius and René Laloux [AN71, 93], with Mutsuo Koseki coming up with art direction capable of comparing to Laloux. The three year megaproject pulled in animator legends from across the board - Inoue, Ohashi, Ando, Masuo, Matsutake, Umetsu! (Count how many directed part of Robot Carnival).

The character designs of Palme look simple in stills, but once you see them in motion, they're anything but - incredibly volumetric and full of life and movement.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Nakamura ended up working with Colorido and 4C a lot (naturally enough given the connection with Morimoto!), increasingly making effective use of CG in his projects. This led up to The Portrait Studio (写真館 Shashinkan) (c.f. AniObsessive) in 2015 - an almost solo short film, with Nakamura writing, storyboarding, designing characters and doing all the key animation, which is a kind of slice through Japanese history through the lens of a photographer who just wants to figure out a way to get his client to smile.

Much like Palme, The Portrait Studio combines simple character designs (in a stylised picture-book look) with very precise, realist animation on 2s and 1s to lend them a sense of density and 'existence'. Moreover, unlike most anime, it uses the raw pencils as finished lines instead of redrawing them clean on a computer. The style might call to mind Otomo's Cannon Fodder, and in fact the two films share a colour designer. 3D is integrated with an unusual degree of skill and subtlety. It makes for a fascinating combination, a very memorable and impactful film for all its apparent simplicity.

So, that's our focus for tonight! We'll be watching Catnapped!, A Tree of Palme and The Portrait Studio, and getting to find out what the deal is with Nakamura - one of the Very Important Guys in the history of anime, influential on so many of my faves... but all too often overlooked by people who aren't like, huge animation nerds.

If that sounds fun, come join me at twitch.tv/canmom - going live in just a minute! I've been wanting to do Nakamura for ages, and today I finally found energy for a writeup. See you there~

[spectrechosts]

Desperado

I want to be done reuploading and all I have left is shorter stories I haven't touched in forever which means shit is getting CONDENSED into single posts so I can have all this done by Halloween.

This one is about an anxious pilot and her friend who definitely isn't a pirate. 3 chapters.

Selene sighed.

"Okay," She said, "Do you really want to know why this keeps happening? Because you're not going to like it."

Luna nodded, meekly.

"It's the hat."

"What?" She squeaked, half baffled half offended.

"Literally nobody doing reputable things in space does so wearing a cowboy hat. It's- I don't even know how to explain this to you in a way that shouldn't already be apparent."

"But I like my hat!"

"I know."

"You can't judge someone based on a hat!"

"I don't know what you want me to say. It's like one step removed from wearing an actual pirate hat in terms of accessories that say you are doing piracy."

"You cannot assume that from a hat."

"It's the hat and the fact that, to an outside observer, your tendency to avoid people because you're shy looks like you have a whole 'mysterious dark stranger in a tavern' vibe going on."

"But-"

"I told you you weren't gonna like it." Selene said, and finished her beer. "Now tell me what you got roped into so I can get you out of it."

"I-I think they're loading black market organs onto my ship."

"Jesus christ."

"I'm sorry."

"Luna, you can keep the hat. It makes you look cute. But, for the love of god, you have to get better at saying no to people."

~~~

"C-Can you please go faster? I have deadlines, and-"

The customs officer glared at Luna, and she withered. They carefully inspected every inch of her cargo hold, opening shipments, checking for hidden panels, scanning for traces of contraband.

"What's her deal?" Another customs officer asked Selene, who was watching the scene unfold.

"Oh, you know how it is." She shrugged. "Jumpy pilot gets singled out at a checkpoint for being suspicious, that makes them more jumpy the next time, and round and round it goes. She's been flagged down for inspection six times this month."

"Heh, poor kid."

"Poor me having to wait through all this. I could be on Mars by now if I didn't have a soft spot for doe-eyed idiots."

"Mm. Well, speaking of inspections, your ship's been randomly flagged for a search."

Selene narrowed her eyes.

"That seems to happen quite often when you're on shift."

"Hey, I just do what the system tells me." The officer said, putting his hands in the air. "Think of it as lucky that they show up on my watch, and not somebody less understanding."

"Fine." Selene huffed, and slipped him a credit chip.

"Well, looks like everything checked out clean. I'll get outta your hair."

Selene folded her arms and waited for Luna to finally be cleared to leave.

"I'm sorry!" She cried over comms as they took off again. "I just get so nervous!"

"It's okay, Luna. You're not doing anything wrong."

"I don't know why I get so worried about being searched. I'm not a pirate, I don't even know any pirates!"

Selene smiled.

She'd tell her eventually, if things between them got serious.

~~~

"S-So that's my cargo manifest, and as you can see everything is in order."

Luna was sweating bullets. She didn't know what it was about inspections, but just the idea that she might have accidentally messed something up and go to jail for it made her queasy.

"Ah, I don't need to read all that, girl. Just show me what you're hauling and we'll talk about what you're going to do with it, okay?"

The inspector clapped her on the back, and she squeaked. "Um. Okay?"

"Good girl."

This inspector was weird. She was very nice, but everything she said sounded scary somehow. It kind of reminded her of that one time Selene had gotten drunk while they were docked at Neptune and said some incredibly salacious things to her in a similar tone of voice before passing out at their table.

That… Wasn't a memory she needed right now. She was flustered enough.

"So um, this section is all iron ore, containers one through twenty-six."

"How wonderful. Next."

"Then these ones, twenty-seven through thirty-one, these are all, um, industrial air filters. It's- It's mostly all just stuff for the refinery." Luna explained.

"Okay, I think there's been a misunderstanding here." The inspector said, putting her arm around Luna's shoulder.

"O-Oh. I'm sorry?"

"It's okay, pretty girl. I was unclear. I want you to show me the good stuff, yeah?"

"The… Good stuff?" Pretty girl???

"The secret stuff, babygirl. The illegal stuff."

Luna went pale.

"Nonono, I-I don't have-" She babbled, and the inspector's face fell.

"Ohh, babygirl, I don't like being lied to." She said. Her sly smile was gone, her relaxed posture replaced with that of a predator looming over her prey.

"I'm- I'm not-" Luna said, backing away.

"Do you know what happens to people who lie to me?"

Luna backed into the side of a shipping container, and the inspector slammed an open palm next to her head. She flinched at the impact, tears welling in her eyes.

"They… Go to jail?"

The inspector's ominous appearance cracked, a smile showing through. "They- What?"

She giggled. She laughed at her and Luna's face burned and she didn't understand what was going on.

"You- You still think-" The inspector struggled to speak between fits of laughter. "Oh, oh I had heard Selene liked to play house with easy marks, but holy shit girl you're like, actually stupid."

That made Luna mad. Was she too trusting? Maybe. Was she bad at social situations? Sure. But she was not stupid, and she did not like being laughed at, and she definitely didn't like how this girl talked about Selene. She balled her hands into trembling fists.

"Whew, okay, let's do this from the top, with no subtlety so you can follow- ghlk!"

Luna punched the fake inspector in her stupid throat and tackled her to the ground, raining blows upon her arms as she attempted to guard her face.

~

Luna was released from the security office after a few hours. The cameras corroborated that the now very bruised woman in the other holding cell had been posing as a customs officer to gain access to her ship.

Selene was waiting for her when she got out, and swept her into her arms.

"I'm sorry," She said, "This is my fault, I-I haven't been honest with you."

"You're a pirate." Luna grumbled.

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

"Do you know her?"

"…Yeah. She's my ex."

"Then is what she said true?" Luna sniffled. "Are you just, playing house with me? Because I'm gullible?"

"No!"

"If-If I find out you're lying to me, I'll never forgive you."

"No, Luna, I was going to tell you everything, I swear."

"Okay." Luna said. "I believe you." She wiped her tears away with her sleeve. "So… That's the kind of girl you're into?"

"Not for a long time now. Too much trouble."

"What kind of girl are you into then?"

"…Okay," Selene said, blushing a little. "There is one other thing I need to tell you, while I'm spilling my secrets-"

[eisforeidolon]

Despite the show ending 4yrs ago, Misha is still fixated on Destiel. He is now claiming that the writers and the cast were aware of destiel and he says he thinks the writers would play into it, and he said he doesn't think it's unfair to call it queerbaiting and said he wanted it to happen but he didn't think they would have the guts.

I wish I was surprised, but he has no integrity and literally nothing else to try and sell people on through his own laziness and short-sighted stupidity.

We've seen what his quote unquote acting deteriorated to by the end of SPN. On top of that, Castiel as a character decayed pretty badly and was given nothing but shitty half-assed storylines to pretty blatantly fill time. Meanwhile, Misha himself increasingly catered to D/C shippers and hellers, turning off not just the GA but fans of Castiel as more than half a fanon ship. So his only remaining fans that will give him money and follow him to any projects he might get? Are mostly D/C shippers and hellers. Given those givens, it's not surprising the vast majority of his post-SPN career (at least so far as I've seen) has been queerbaiting hellers on cameo and at cons and getting hellers to hire him for their projects. If having to come out as straight from baiting too blatantly didn't stop him? I'm pretty sure nothing will.

He said that same nonsense about the writers leaning into Destiel years ago - and Bob Singer and Jensen both said he was utterly full of shit. He himself said he never thought they'd actually play into it prior to season 15 - where he and Berens personally orchestrated the only thing I think could legitimately be called queerbaiting to make it into the show. They knew how the shippers would take that scene, knew the GA would not because the phrasing was pointedly left ambiguous, and knew it was Castiel's last scene. Yet they still did it.

The irony sure is something. An opportunistic, inconsistent, spineless weasel like Misha, accusing the show and showrunners of the shit mostly only he's actually done? The guy who knowingly lead fans on to sell ops/autos/cameos/merch, calling the show queerbaiting for Dean and Castiel sometimes making eye contact and that one pointedly ambiguous scene he pushed for? The guy who constantly changes his story depending on who is in the room, impugning the intentions of people who were clear and consistent the story was about the brothers' bond and the ship was a fanon thing all along? The guy who is too afraid of his own fans to be honest claiming the only reason an OOC nonsensical fanon ship wasn't written into the show was about not having "guts"? Which hilariously isn't even his own thoughts, just something he's parroting back that he knows his batshit fans want to hear? Oof. He does not get less embarrassing. Like, is reality actually going to ultimately outdo the baby-eater timeline? I guess we'll see.

[bananasfosterparent]

Update on my current runs!

Silkina the Bard Waveservant -

She got the Volo eye (not pictured) and has been helping her friends while looking for a cure. This is my first "good" solo run, so it's a lot of content, more than I'm used to! Definitely going slower than my usual, but still a lot of fun! Also never realized how funny Karlach is lmao. Just getting to the goblin fight so we'll see how it goes! Very excited to get Wyll's party scene!! Silkina is sassy, but kind and really an outlier among other waveservants because of it. Well, she's really good at connecting with others at least. Despite it being odd, since most Waveservants (especially clerics) are quite standoffish and introverted, Silkina focuses on making her outgoing nature work for her, sharing the might and fury of Umberlee with her words (and music).

Also.. after getting the Volo eye and almost everyone disapproving, I noticed Wyll didn't.. but he didn't have a ! either. I had her talk to him anyway and he was like "Welcome to the one eye club! A woman with one eye is very intriguing c:" and I giggled.

Efeniti (Spawn Astarion ending AU run) -

In the exact same place it's been for a few weeks lmao I have not touched this playthrough. I AM SCHTALLING. I know what you're thinking... because I'm an AA fan... but really, I just can't emotionally handle the break down scene after he brutally stabs Cazedor. Or the brutal stabbing. I am really not ready for that. I have my own feelings for why and what it makes me experience, but maybe if I actually go through with it this time, I can talk about it (it's not that bad, I'm just procrastinating).

This version of Efenity is who she would be if she hadn't lost the woman who was like a mother to her. If she had been able to have a somewhat normal life and become a private magic teacher in the upper part of the city. She's much kinder and able to temper herself much better.

Efenity (Canon AA romance run #whatever) -

This is idk like the 5th time I've played as Efenity. I've lost count 🤷🏽‍♀️ Most of these runs, I only got to Act 3 and only 2 I've gotten to the final fight and couldn't win it after trying over and over. This time I plan to finish it!!! I want my epilogue, dang it! I killed Minthara this time, at the party. There was a leftover from EA with a voiced Tav scene. If you killed Minty and the goblins at the party, that night or morning after(?) there's some conversation and Tav says something in the cut scene! ANYWAY... I tried it and it didn't happen 😭😭😭 I either did it wrong (I attacked before Minty had her murder cutscene) OR they patched it out of the game! I could go back and try it again, but I barely won that fight and it took me SO many tries (mostly due to needing to long rest).

But! Regardless! Even though I didn't get that cool voiced Tav scene... I have added Efenity killing Minthara and the goblins at the party to her canon story. Because it just makes sense that she'd do that. Originally, she just uses her to get to Moonrise but I scrapped that. While Efenity just sees the tieflings as collateral damage, she knows Shadowheart was struggling with that whole ordeal which did bother her... she cares for SH and she is her first real friend. And with Minthara insulting her for not wanting to sleep with her, on top of it...

Efenity was like OKAY. Time for you to go, ma'am.

Solenia Omraebra, the Drow Cleric -

I've only had her for about a week and I love her. She's also been through at least 6 different hairstyles 😭 Solenia is my newest Tav, a Drow and cleric of Eilistraee! She's very studious and scholarly. I don't know much about her beyond that yet. Still working on her backstory and whatnot, BUT she is good to a fault. She wants to save everyone, in every way that she possibly can. Even those she probably shouldn't get close enough to, to try to save. Even those she is told are irredeemable. She's romancing Gale! She's just getting through Act 1 stuff and almost to the goblin camp!

[greenqueenhightower]

Anon back again with more rumours/leaks from twitter to make (un)substantiated claims🫡

Okay so one of the people that went to the premiere in NYC was answering some questions also in regards to Alicent. They said it is implied that the first sex scene we see between Alicole is not the first time they have sex, but they made clear that the implication don't seem to be that it was something that happened pre-Viserys death. Which would put their relationship starting after 1x09 and before 2x01. That would make sense to me.

This also lines up with some other leaks I heard where they said Alicent and Criston's first scene of the season was a sex scene, so it is more an established thing that is happening. The same previously mentioned leaker replied in regards to Alicent's character that mainly she seems confused, which we know as she is looking for a sense of self.

Some people theorized that the large number of sex scenes (3 rumoured for first two eps) and the fact that Alicent's story seems to start there in s2 (also Olivia mentioning sexuality as something that is explored) could be written as hypersexuality as a response to her trauma manifesting after Viserys' death. Others theorized that it could be comphet and her figuring out sexuality in a place that is so deeply repressed. It could also simply be that she is having sex because she wants to (good for her) and then because it happens during B&C that the guilt of that is so great she simply represses it all again and the relationship falls apart after that. In any case I can see various routes in which this could be explored in a way that makes sense for Alicent's character.

Now for Criston's character: we saw some leaks and early reviews (watched either ep 1 and 2 or 1 through 4) saying that he gets more "bitter" as the season progresses and would become "the most hated character on tv". Now I take the second one with a grain of salt because people tend to dislike him way more than for example dae/mon who is uhm worse idk. But the common conception seems to be that he gets worse as the season goes on. So seeing as ep 1 starts with Alicole together and then B&C happens at the end of ep 1 start of ep 2, it seems like they skip the getting together stage and instead show the falling apart of this relationship. This would make sense if they are paralleling rhaenicent (as Ryan said) because at the same time dae/myra also seems to be slowly breaking apart.

For now to me it seems this relationship is mainly to show Alicent's headspace she is in of being confused and feeling purposeless. An Alicole rift after B&C as a result of this would make sense and would leave Alicent even more alone (save my girlie). We'll have to wait and see. Also glad you like my thoughts I'm just spitballing here and honestly need the episodes immediately.

Thanks, anon, for keeping me updated! 💚

Okay, actually the idea that Alicent and Criston consummate their relationship some time after Viserys' death and before the Dance of the Dragons sounds good to me. Again, I would have liked to have seen the entire pathway of their relationship that culminated in that, but hey--as long as it is well-written I won't mind.

Your comment about hypersexuality manifesting itself as Alicent's post-traumatic response to her marriage is very interesting! I also see it as a manifestation of agency in the sense that she no longer has to be summoned to perform a sexual act upon request, but she can seek it and want it herself. It most definitely can be comphet too, because she is not as free as per Westerosi patriarchal and heteronormative standards to contemplate and realize any relationship apart from the norm.

When it comes to Criston's character development in S2, your theory that the writers might have Alicole parallel Daemyra to showcase how the Dance has devastated all kinds of relationships: familial, conjugal, erotic, etc., is quite plausible. Watching Alicent and Criston's relationship suffer to the point of breaking would be heart-wrenching but angsty and spellbinding at the same time. I just wish we get to see more of them together before that happens.

And as for Alicent's battle with guilt and her quest for agency and self-worth, I am all for it as long as the show does not victimize and wh!rify Alicent. I assume that Alicloe will break up after B&C, but will at some point get together again (maybe after Aegon is injured at Rook's Rest?). And for all the time they are apart, I hope we see more of just Alicent crying and being miserable and Criston being ruthless in war and battle.

[amaryllisblackthorn]

spoilers for professor layton and the last specter

one day i'll finally write that ~analysis about how layton treats children esp in pl4 and esp in comparison to emmy that's been in my head for literal y e a r s at this point

i'm going to actually leave some of my scattered thoughts abt it here finally. note that this is all based on the US localization.

for lack of better words, layton treats children with respect and seriously. like of course he's mindful that they're children but he takes what they say and feel with seriousness. vs emmy who's often patronizing, demeaning, or impatient (for lack of better words).

this is prob most apparent with Luke in pl4, though not limited to him.

when first told about the door puzzle, emmy goes 'aw thats so cute let's do it'. like indulging a little kid. which luke is, but i digress. EDIT: briefly checked out the jpn text in the scene and it doesn't seem like Emmy calls it cute, and her tone isn't doing it either. seems like she's just like, 'Professor, let's do it!' which is interestinf

there's a point where Luke is freaking out about the specter and the power it has and how it's corrupted his father. emmy's like 'you cant seriously believe theres actually a specter!' but Layton says to Luke 'I believe the specter has the power you say it has'. Layton doesnt believe there's an actual monster re: the specter, but he believes there is something re: the specter, and that's the important thing. and Layton furthermore immediately goes on to say he's noticed something's up with Clark, himself. Layton is listening to Luke and taking his feelings and fears seriously and is validating him -- and this is so incredibly significant bc of Luke's whole feeling like he's unable to trust anyone during the game which is incredibly related to this but a bit separate so im trying not to digress. THE POINT. is. the difference between Layton and Emmy in this regard.

i dont remember if it's the same part -- i think it might be later but maybe not -- i think it's when Luke reveals how he can tell where the specter will appear next? -- but basically Emmy's kind of upset for lack of a better word that Luke had been withholding that info and is like 'are you hiding anything else, like what the specter has for breakfast?!' or something iirc. luke mind of apologetically defends himself with 'i didnt know if i could trust you' and Layton is totally understanding

EDIT: (i removed an example bc upon further reflection it wasnt necessarily relevant. i might readd it later)

then there's the part with Jakes' son near the end iirc

also the small part nearer the beginning iirc when Luke goes chasing after the cat and Emmy&Layton are chasing after him and Emmy complains to the professor 'he's acting like a child!' and layton's like 'heh well he is a child c; '

there's also how Layton treats/interacts with the Ravens

also when first meeting Luke and Luke's opening up slightly but then Clark comes in and starts scolding him which has Luke withdraw/angry/turn away and Layton's like, "Clark, please"

there's also the cutscene when they first see the specter, where before it appears. Layton asks Luke, 'well, luke, what do you think? do you see anything?', he says no nothing, and Emmy's like 'I still have a hard time believing this. it sounds like a scary bedtime story. is this even possible?'. Layton says, 'Well, we'll soon find out.' and then Emmy goes on to say 'and a poor boy who predicts where the giant specter will appear' and Luke's unhappy about her comment

ALSO when Layton tries to go after the Specter that scene and Luke grabs onto him and tells him not to go, Layton takes the time to talk to him. same for when Luke's freaking out when the police took Arianna away. Layton puts a hand on his shoulder, gets to his level, and talks to him seriously.

this isn't bashing on Emmy btw I actually enjoy this as part of her character and it makes sense to me the difference between her and Layton in this regard. im also not saying that shes like always like this with kids either. or that it's even kid specific. I genuinely think it's neat. I also think it's a super neat part of Layton's character.

also ive really got to either play through pl4 again myself or watch a playthrough to record all the specific instances again.

also Layton taking Luke's feelings and fears seriously and Luke coming to trust Layton at this time of his life means the world to me

[zeciex]

The anguish and suffering I like it, because it is what will change the dynamics of the characters with each team. What I was afraid of with the loss of the baby is this, losing Daenera with the maternal instinct and Aemond too, as a child gives them that purposeful responsibility of "this is my real family and I will fight to the last breath for them " But if it's going to do almost at the end it's like a conclusion and not during the big part of the war. At least if we take away Daenera's child we will see one version of her being in the war? I hated that Rhaenyra will spend the whole war inactive, depressed, doing nothing while others died for her. Thank goodness the show is changing that. I want the same for Daenera.

And another thing, I hate book purists, can they shut up already and stop throwing shit at a epidose that hasn't even aired yet? This is just an adaptation. Get over it.

The birth of their child does mend the rift between them and give them a common cause--to keep their child safe and well. And losing the child will create a new rift as Aemond pulls back and Daenera being the one to hang onto him for once. But in that shared grief, they also find some common ground. Aemond will give Daenera a choice; to stay with him or to go back to her mother. And Daenera will choose. There will actually be, within the next many chapters, choices that Aemond gives her and I think that's important for their relationship, especially after losing their child.

We'll also see Daenera maintain that maternal instinct as Helaena starts to lose herself to grief. Daenera will try and keep her afloat, as well as offer Jaehaera and Maelor some comfort. But we'll also see Daenera start to gain influence, particularly over and though Aemond. She will be involved with the war as much as the council of men will allow, which isn't much, but we'll see her make more of an effort once she goes to Harrenhal.

I do intend to have her be part of the political side of the war--not so much fighting in it, she might be okay with a knife but she's not going on the battlefield anytime soon, if anything, she'd be the one taking care of the wounded. BUT she will be part of a battle at some point ;)

I also intend to have Rhaenyra be a bit more decisive than what we've seen in the first episodes of the show. She might still be hoping for a peaceful resolution and she might still be indecisive/hold back but it is only because that the Greens have Daenera and she doesn't want to lose another child. That being said, there will be some minor battles and war efforts within the 7 months that happens before B&C--and some of these battles/war efforts originally happens after B&C but as they don't have too much of an effect on the overall arc/story, they can easily happen in those 7 months.

I understand why book readers want the show to be more loyal to the source material as some of the writing decisions for this season in particular has been mediocre at best and down right nonsensical at worst. Personally, I think what ticks off people the most are the writing decisions on how to handle some of the characters--Alicent and Daemon, as well as Rhaenyra to an extent. Alicents character has left much to be desired this season and half of her scenes should have been given to developing other characters because they've done nothing for the story (why the fuck did we have to see 3 AliCole sex scenes AND why did we get her depression camping trip when it did nothing for the plot?) The biggest gripe with this season is how the writers has chosen to handle characters, the pacing, and expecting the viewer to come up with plausible explanations of things that happens off screen (why did Aemond go to the brothel in the first place? What brought him there? How has his relationship deteriorated with Aegon so quickly and no its not just bullying, why wasn't Jaehaerys brought up? What was his reaction to Jaehaerys death and being the cause of it? Why did Daemon devolve as a character to have this haunted mansion plotline where he eats his mother out when he had already accepted Rhaenyra as his queen in s1)

I think many book readers miss the consistency of the characters. But, as a person that have only read snippets of the book, I also miss the consistency of the characters.

[aerialworms]

hello dear mutual! I have a question. I'm no longer in the fandom but I like watching from the sidelines. there was a poll asking if destiel will still be made canon and my question is: how. isn't the prequel planned about the parents? I would love an explanation cause I don't understand. thank you so much!!

Hello there friend!! I'm happy to explain, I love rambling about this batshit show so much!

So yes, the prequel is about the parents, but I'm not sure how much you know about it so here's a little primer: from what I've seen, it's actually Dean telling the story of how his parents met and fell in love, presumably while he's up in Heaven post-finale (y'know, where Cas is also supposed to be). Jensen and his wife Daneel are executive producing, and the prequel is being showrun by Robbie Thompson, known for writing such episodes as Goodbye Stranger (the crypt scene my beloved!!!!!!), Meta Fiction ("What makes a story work? Is it the plot, the characters, the text? The subtext?"), and Fan Fiction (the musical ep! With Sam teasing Dean about destiel!). So from the get-go everyone was like 👀 because Robbie has always been a destiel-positive writer! Plus, apparently, Daneel's favourite character is Cas, so it would make sense for them to bring Cas back if they (and Misha) wanted!

Please bear in mind that I haven't actually watched any of the prequel, i've just been living vicariously through my dash. People who have actually watched it/know more than me please feel free to add on/correct me!

So, to my knowledge, the reasons people are thinking they might make Destiel canon in the prequel are (in no particular order):

a) A few weeks ago there was an episode that had Gabriel (as played by Richard Speight Jr) as the MOTW and also had a background cameo from Rob Benedict in a very bad wig (unclear if that was Chuck or not), and there have been quotes from (i think) Robbie saying that they're only having cameos from OG SPN actors if it's relevant to the story they want to tell (and since the Rob cameo was not explained or plot-relevant people are thinking they're possibly going to do a Chuck won scenario? It could turn out that he was never actually defeated in 15.19 and now Dean has to show up to fight him again (and get Cas back?? maybe??))

b) In that same episode, there was a scene where Mary and John look at a picture of some dude who'd given them a clue or talked to John or something - it was Dean! So he's alive again, briefly, in the 70s. Could be time travel, could be he's escaped from Heaven. So if Dean is around in the show, whether just as narrator or as a character in the story, he has the potential to go rogue and look for Cas, or be telling the story to Cas up in Heaven. In either case, there is the potential for canon destiel, if they (Jensen, Daneel, Robbie, Misha, etc.) decide they want to do that.

c) Jensen has said various things at cons recently which are kinda 👀, including that he'd have been happy to keep going on SPN for another 6 years, and, most recently (this weekend), which I think sparked the poll you were talking about - that if Dean and Cas reunited Dean would say "Hey, can we talk about that goodbye a little bit?" and then joked that nah, it would be more like "hey, buddy, good to see you, old pal" but THEN said "I don't know, maybe we'll get to see that, that would be interesting" (Here's a gifset of him saying that if you're interested)

Also this:

[ID: Tweet from Toni @JensFloofHair.

JENSEN WANTS TO FILM A NEW ENDING FOR SUPERNATURAL, THE ONE HE HAD DREAMED OF. ABOUT A 2 DAY SHOOTING, HE SAYS.

Misha: I mean, you have the Impala.

Damn right, nothing stopping them!!

#JIB11 /End ID]

It's no secret that Jensen Did Not like the finale, apparently Eric Kripke had to talk him into it and he still makes salty jokes about it even now. Add the fact that he got someone else to film the confession for him because he wanted to have a record of it, and has said they cut out key parts of his performance in that scene (which is why the editing of it is so janky). So it's possible that he intended for there to be actual reciprocation in that scene and, well, now he's got the reins. He could do it if he wanted!!!

d) The prequel finale - airing next Tuesday, Jack help us - is titled "Hey, that's no way to say goodbye". Which was already kinda 👀 before the con this weekend, but combined with Jensen saying Dean would say "can we talk about that goodbye a little bit?" is um. Look I don't wanna get my hopes up. But also........ 👀👀👀

I think the prevailing theories at the moment (from what I've seen on my dash) are that either:

a) They're baiting us to keep interest in the prequel (I trust Robbie but I don't really trust Jensen, so this seems likely)

b) They really are gonna bring Cas back, either as him being the one Dean is telling this story to up in Heaven, or using that Rob Benedict cameo to retcon the finale and make the show about breaking free of Chuck's control for realsies this time (which hopefully means Cas actually showing up and not being explained away in one line like the finale)

Like I said, I don't wanna get my hopes up because I don't quite trust Jensen. But. Given Robbie Thompson showrunning and Daneel loving Cas and Jensen dropping all these maybe-maybe-not hints. If they DID make destiel canon. I would not be surprised.

Well maybe a little bit but in an "I can't believe I was right" way.

[awiola]

Normal update, autumn summer XXIV

Imagine being about two weeks late, tsk tsk. But the previous one was too early so now it's perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Current game stuff

Unsurprisingly, not a lot to say here. Due to a tiny lil irl fuckup I'm gonna be moderately hella busy for half a year or so which means - exactly - even less devving from me than before! Soon we'll get below zero!

But, so it's not yet another non update - Impostor Syndrome is still in the works. Rn I'm pretending to be a programmer and trying to learn a whole new engine to make the game less heavy, laggy and all that stuff. Optimisation is hard and I have no idea what I'm doing, wish me luck 💪

I'm participating in Yuri jam with shino with an ABO mecha story. I'm the only artist so we'll see how many assets I'm actually able to produce but it's supposed to be a short game so it should be doable. Think I'll post about it here after it's done. It's my first time drawing mecha and I was given free rein so yeah, be scared. I tried to go for both old SF and retrofuturism with some modern elements. Not promising anything but it's not the worst thing I've drawn so that's something? Despite the premise, there won't actually be a whole lot of zerg fighting action since programming fight scenes is a pain. Sry. But it's a jam so you gotta scope knife sometimes.

"24 >:C" stuff is not really progressing but like a day before Argousze's release anniversary, I remembered I was suposed to work on it before it's 5 years old so I checked the date and it was actually from 2020 so I still have a year :D Would probably work on the other stuff but again, I'm busier than expected and gotta have priorities and all that.

Pariiish noootiiiceees

Insect (adjacent) jam is still ongoing for around a month so if you suddenly got a great game idea, there's still time to make it! Goodspeed, soldier. I don't wanna call it a complete flop but ig that's what I get for doing absolutely no marketing. I'll reflect on that for the next time. Maybe.

Next year we're cooking. It's come to my attention that people would like to participate in Object Head jam yet again so Miss Mermelada might be back in 2025. I've got thug's blessing already. [Go play Object Ward, btw]. I have to plan everything properly since there's a lot of major jams all year round and I wanted to host Underwater jam next year. It's exactly what it sounds like - as long as it's happening underwater, it's cool. Same rules as before, though I might add a FAQ or something as I remember getting a question I wrote down somewhere... And I'll try to be a better moderator than during Bird jam orz Actually, I should still check it and get rid of spam entries... But that's for later.

Over.

[drconstellation]

@nofomogirl I sometimes worry about writing something about something that has already been written, but sometimes it helps to get a different angle on it. So while I mostly do make an effort to do a search and see what might be said, sometimes you do just need to say it your way. Fiction is like that, after all, everyone telling the same story over and over.

But back to the actual discussion, thank you for @whathehe11-writes for clarifying things in the comments.

I think one of the problems with Shax's comment is it's too vague. What is "the mightiest of archangels" anyway? Is it a rank, or a reputation? And its also something that:

a) can't be considered on its own,

b) can only be considered in context with other scenes, and

c) perhaps we don't have enough information at the moment to understand fully, and we can only understand in retrospect. Which, is actually quite a common thing in GO.

When, and if, you make the effort to put all the tiny little subtle pieces together, the picture is, to me, an eye-popping awesome suggestion. But if I was to rave on about what I truly think I'm sure I would be told to get back in my box and keep my speculation to myself (and some people have already politely told me to do so, so don't worry, it happens.) Because its just that, speculation. There's no hard proof. Yet. And I really hope S3 will provide us with that, and justify my thoughts. I can be patient. I've waited far longer for sequels to appear than just three years. That's nothing. Three years will fly by, and then hopefully, we'll have answers.

But yeah, if you'd like to discuss more about the "common knowledge" of his former status, let me know, I'll drop a bit more in here. There's plenty of moments where it occurs.

Why has no one talked about how at the start of season 2 episode 2 of good omens shax tells Crowley that a strong miracle near the book shop that could only be done by the strongest of archangels was detected and he answered “how do you know I didn’t do it”

How has no one mentioned that about their theories that he was actually not just a regular Joe Schmoe kind of Angel but actually a former archangel. He literally clearly states it here (and indicates that his former status is potentially somewhat common knowledge)

(Unless I am actually blind and just never saw anyone talk about this)

[chit-a-to]

❗❗ TW ❗❗ sexual assault

Her statement scared me... Like... Okay I got it, when I was still a kid I used to like (much) older guys, too, maybe like 10 yrs older or something. But then as I grew up I realized that even though it was a harmless crush, it's still dangerous and morally wrong to build a relationship between a minor and an adult. Still, it is understandable because as a kid we're still learning and cannot really differentiate yet as to what is morally wrong or not.

Now if this Lina person said that when they (sauceribs) were kids they thought Rin was going to ended up with Sesshomaru, shouldn't they be growing out of that mindset? Because they're adults now and they should've learned that romanticizing a minor and adult can be constituted as supporting grooming which is part of pedophilic behavior. Even if she they said that "it's just a drawing! it's not a big deal!", then again every time there's an animation that features POC or people from non-christian religions (e.g. buddhists muslims, &c.) as the main characters, we called them "representation". So, what makes it so different when it's a child or a teenager on screen? Won't it represents children/teenagers/young adults, too?

What I'm afraid of is not her mere statement, but what it might implies. If sauceribs' ways of thinking are like that, and they all now are adult, I'm afraid that they might let that mindset seeped into their every day's life. For example, they see a 20 yrs old something man hitting on a teenage girl and they'll be thinking "Oh yeah, that's totally fine. The girl definitely wants to be with him."

And that's on a very basic and very common example of what grooming looks like in our modern society. But there are also child predators who is unheard of with appearance like a good, law-abiding citizen. Who knows that one of them are a mangaka? 👀 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm not saying that if you support sessrin then you'll become a pedophile. What I mean is that if you couldn't realize the disturbing nature of their relationship, it could potentially blind your judgement towards similar cases, real life or not.

Oh and one more thing. It seems that raisins and proshippers always deflect antis' statement with "So if you think that liking sessrin making me a lolicon/groomer supporter, then by that logic I wanna be a murderer too if I watch anime that has murder scenes huh?"

That's a good analogy and I've been thinking about it, too. But after some pondering, I don't think those are the same thing. Because, in the case of murder, we have been thought ever since we're little kids that it's bad to hurt other living creatures. So, even if we watch anime/movies with the MC being a killer, we'll realized - albeit unconsciously - that that's a wrong thing and we shouldn't do that. Only in some unfortunate (and extreme) cases where people are actually get inspired to murder other people or kill animals after watching anime/movies with that theme.... [1] [2].

Meanwhile, as for the case of grooming &/ other sexual abuse, we learned about all of that only recently, and just bit by bit too, thanks to the increased interest in law protection for women and especially for survivors who are brave enough to share their stories. Most of the time we can't sniffed it out immediately, particularly if we haven't known the couple for a long time or their background stories, because we've been told that "it's not our business" to know what's happening between a couple. That's why seeing a seemingly innocent couple in an anime/movie and being told "that man/woman sexually abuses his/her partner!" feels like a foreign thing to us, and of course for the die hard fans of the couple it feels like an insult hence the denial and deflection.

Again, if you wanna ask "wtf does the anime/movies couples hv to do with rl cases? 👿👿". Then I wanna ask you too, can you look at a teenager or a young adult who has been a real victim of sexual abuse and think "poor little thing..." but then proceed to watch an anime/movie that portrays a character with similar backstory? Will you be irked by the similarity or will you keep gushing over it?

In conclusion, justifying/normalizing sexual abuse in a mainstream media can leads you to justifying/normalizing sexual abuse in real life, too.

[eisforeidolon]

So apparently the conspiracy nuts are convinced the latest episode of TW had some kind of parallel between John & Mary and Dean & Cas, so OMG PROOF, it's totally gonna be canon for realz (again. this time.)!

Sigh.

Aside from the fundamental absurdity of thinking a show about entirely different characters only exists as a vehicle to validate a ship from the original show? Which somehow manages to raise the bar for wackiness above the already pretty absurd standard of thinking the original show was about Dean & Cas? The fundamental problem with these kinds of conspiracy metas is they fail to account for very basic common sense and logic when it comes to audience and significance.

A television show is never going to tell a story entirely through hidden clues and obscure parallels the general audience will either not notice or not read significance in. Which is not to say subtle elements don't ever exist at all - but when they do? It will be in service of underlining the already ongoing explicit storyline that's repeatedly made obvious to even casual watchers. So no, a random similarity between two scenes or minor storylines literal years apart (especially in entirely different shows) is not purposefully placed to signpost (or bait) a storyline that otherwise doesn't exist. I can think of no better highlight to how inane it is to think otherwise than how SPN previouslies would reiterate major things that happened just one or two episodes prior because they had that little faith in the audience's ability to follow along. The creators aren't catering to a secret group of ~*chosen ones*~ special enough to ~*understand*~ a hidden storyline that requires a metric ton of credulity following a hidden trail of clues over a decade and a half - they're catering to whatever general audience will tune in to a silly CW genre show for at least a little while.

Our brains are made to seek out patterns, but when we start from the expectation there must be a pattern? We're so good at finding them we'll create one out of purely coincidental noise. Which is why any legitimate and remotely successful attempt to predict what will happen in a fictional story has to start with an ability to distinguish between what realistically makes sense as a legitimately purposeful similarity - and what doesn't. Because of medium, because of genre, because of the clear-cut ongoing storylines, because of overarching themes, because of the prominence of the characters in the canon, because of what TPTB say their intentions are, etc.

The dumbest one of these I recall seeing was someone insisting a similar framing of shots between 10x22 SPN and 2x03 of Dark Angel by the same director thirteen years apart was a super sneakret clue to D/C. To get there? You have to ignore the potential sheer fucking coincidence fight scenes might be blocked similarly. You have to ignore that said director might just have personal preferences that show up in his work in general. You have to ignore that the vast majority of the audience would either not have seen both or not remembered any particular similarity, again, thirteen years apart on different shows. You have to ignore not only the pure absurdity of assuming a vaguely similar scene between a romantic pair and an otherwise platonic one PROVES the second is also/going to become romantic - for SPN particularly, a show that constantly used romantic parallels and tropes with Sam & Dean? But you also have to ignore the dunce cap on top where Max & Alec weren't a canon romantic pairing either.

That is exactly the kind of meta you end up with when you ignore whether or not something being significant genuinely makes sense in favor of deciding to believe that there MUST not only be a pattern there, but the pattern you want to see there, BECAUSE you desperately want it. Anyone who does that and then dares to get mad at the show(s) because they refused to actually engage a single solitary brain cell in remembering how tv storytelling works before setting their expectations ...

[kitsu-katsu]

On Wilbur's showmanship, bad guy fandom portrayals, laughs and a look at the "my sunrise" scene

c!Wilbur's fandom portrayal is a Royal Mess™ in just about every front imaginable to a point where we might as well call fanon Wilbur "Jeff" and stop pretending that he's not an OC.

Today however, I'm focusing on one point from his fanon portrayal: Him being this greater than life guy with a manic grin and full of ego, who will evilly and creepily laugh after evil monologuing to people. We'll touch on where in canon it comes from, how it is exaggerated in fanon, him being theatrical as a character, his moments of vulnerability and what they actually reveal and how "stress laughing" is interpreted by the fandom at large when it comes to c!Wilbur

And we'll take a look at the "my sunrise" scene at the end because it encapsulates what I'm saying pretty well

So, c!Wilbur is theatrical, nobody will deny that. He's like an ex theatre kid and the energy is even more exuded when the story is literally Hamilton parody.

However, he has much more than just his theatrics making him up, especially during Pogtopia, you know, all his mental health issues? Those manifest in much more than manic moments, but from fandom portrayal you'd think he was overall an egotistical greater than life guy who always grins in the face of inconvenience because really he's manipulating it all behind the scenes.

(Now, we could get into his portrayal as a serial manipulator and a mastermind behind the scenes, but this would turn out longer than the actual bible, so I'll just leave it at this: He's not a serial manipulator nor a mastermind, he's just simply a mentally ill, paranoid and self-deprecating guy who genuinely believes that he's the scum of the Earth and the cause of all problems. For further information into things such as quotes, I'd advice to check this post out, especially the parts focusing on his paranoia and self-hatred)

He's shown to be retracted, hesitant, depressed.

He acually even resents "being a showman" in the same scene in which he clearly exhibits his suicidal toughts while not wanting to hurt his friends:

“Yesterday I had the perfect opportunity to blow everything up and finally end it, you know. I had the perfect opportunity to finally blow up everything and end it and just completely save everyone, right, from the tyranny of Schlatt and the tyranny of the existence of Manberg and L’Manberg, right.” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 25:17, 17th Oct)

“Explain it to me! Give me a reason! Give me a reason!” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 26:50, 17th Oct)

“Who else is it gonna hurt?! It’s gonna hurt Schlatt, Manberg, and-” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 26:55, 17th Oct)

“Why did I bring- I should have just done it. I’m such a fucking showman. I should have just done it.” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 27:18, 17th Oct)

“No you two can escape, I’ll be the… I’ll- I’ll- I’ll be… I’ll be trapped in here…” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 27:27, 17th Oct)

“I just- I just want to f… I just wanna end it, I wanna end it. I wanna press that button, man.” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 28:08, 17th Oct)

“I don’t, I don’t, I don’t want to kill you two. I don’t want you two to die.” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 28:53, 17th Oct)

“Ohh, fuck you! Fuck you, man! Why do you make it so hard?! I should have just- I’m such a fucking showman.” - (Wilbur’s Speedy Stream Festival What festival: 29:29, 17th Oct)

And here's the thing, Jeff the fandom OC is way too exaggerated with the greater than life persona. And a thing that I find is used a whole lot is "the villain laugh". It's not uncommon to see Wilbur with a big evil or creepy grin, revelling in the suffering of others, delighted at destruction or completely in control of the whole situation in fanart.

Actual Wilbur, especially during Pogtopia doesn't fit this AT ALL, but you know where a lot of this energy comes from? Aside from the few actually more manic moments, he also tended to laugh in the face of feeling like he was fucked in Pogtopia.

He laughed when moments seemed to prove his paranoia right, laughed a lot of times where it was more of an "Ha! I told you, it's useless, we're all fucked and everyone hates me", he laughed or more sounded joyous when saying part of this quote:

“Oh, yes, sorry, Niki, you missed that part. I was gonna blow up Manberg, I was gonna completely destroy it in a huge fireball. Look, Niki, come to Pogtopia, you’re safer here. You’re not gonna be hurt by anyone.” - (Wilbur’s The Festival: 1:17:59, 16th Oct)

But... those are not grandiose "I was right and now I'll destroy you all!" villain moments, nor are they moments of actual joy and enthusiasm. They are laughs provoked by stress, by anxiousness, by resignation, by anger, by the feeling of "you laugh because what the fuck else can you even express right now?", and also some ironic laughs. As someone who tends to ramp up the irony in their speech up to 11 when feeling pissed or resigned to something, his laughs at moments where he seems joyous but in an ironic sense (aka: He's actually Not Enjoying Anything That Is Happening At All Actually And Has Zero Control Over The Situation) or moments where he's just laughing at the absurdity of how everything seems to be going wrong but also just in the way that he expected them to go wrong (because from his paranoid POV the world is just waiting to screw him over and leave him behind and many instances seem to prove those thoughts right)... it's all very familiar.

And... pretending like he's actually joyous when he's laughing about everything fucking him over, or ironically seeming happy about something that hurts him or his friends, or grins, smiles or chuckles at his paranoia being proven right because "See? Nobody likes me, and they all will abandon me and I am the root of all evil! I was right!" misses a WHOLE lot of nuance and tbh does a disservice to the excellent delivery of many lines by Wilbur by pretending that there isn't even supposed to BE deeper nuance there, by just reducing it to a surface level "evil bad guy laughs in the face of suffering because he's enjoying it and would laugh while abusing Tommy"

(I'm not even getting into him "being abusive during Pogtopia" because again, whis would go way off topic and we'd end up with something longer than the bible, so again I'll refer you to this post, I'd recommend reading it all, but especially the part under how he cares, the parts about L'manbur, the parts in which I talk about his hesitation with the button, the parts that talk about his paranoia, the part about how he projects his own feelings on other people and the part about how he feels dehumanized)

To end this with a more recent example of a scene that was grand in canon but is turned into "Grandiose (derogatory)" in fanon (but not exactly docusing on laughs this time), let's take a look at the "my sunset" scene:

We set the stage: Wilbur is newly revived, he's spent 13 and a half years of solitude in a dark, isolated train station, alone with his thoughts. At the moment of death we was mentally struggling, mid-breakdown, suicidal and had just blown up L'manburg for the sake of it not existing to hurt others again.

We see a bit of how he feels with these lines:

“Is this… Is this real?” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 52:22, 29th Apr)

“I- I feel so numb, I feel… Who- Wh- Are you- Who the fuck- Who the fuck is this- Who the fuck’s, Friend?” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 52:28, 29th Apr)

“I’m sor- I’ve obviously- No, no, no, no. I’ve obviously missed a beat here. I’ve missed a beat. What’s happening? Why am I here?” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 52:54, 29th Apr)

“Ohh, fuck! Did I- Did I do that? Oo, that’s not a good look, is it? That’s not a good look for me.” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 53:06, 29th Apr)

He's numb, he doubts reality, he's confused, he's missing context so he's jumping to conclusions

After wandering around a bit, he gets euphoric at the thought that he's alive again and out of limbo:

“Fuck! I’m alive! Tommy, I’m alive!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 54:00, 29th Apr)

“I have spent thirteen and a half years, in the fucking-!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 54:05, 29th Apr)

“I can- I can feel…” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 54:23, 29th Apr)

“Ohhh. Ohhh, Tommy. Ohh, Tommy. Tommy, this is bliss!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 54:32, 29th Apr)

Literally nothing to villanize here from my POV at least. The man is happy to be alive again, to be regainig feeling, to be ut of limbo which he later describes as:

“Tommy, I- Tommy, I don’t know if you remember- … Tommy, I don’t if you- Do you remember when you came to visit me briefly? That was lovely, by the way. I cherished that day you came to visit me, TommyInnit. I cherished that. Remember when we played competitive solitaire for like three months! It was brilliant! I wish you’d dropped in longer.” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 55:29, 29th Apr)

“Tommy, it was the worst time of my fucking life, Tommy. Tommy, I don’t know if you know-” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 55:53, 29th Apr)

“I guess everyone has their own personal limbo. Okay. Tommy, I don’t know if you remember me telling you this, it was quite a few years ago for me now. But my personal limbo was a train platform, Tommy. It was a train platform. No matter where I look, no matter where I went, just concrete walls all around, and a tube with a track running straight along.” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 56:33, 29th Apr)

“It doesn’t matter what I did, Tommy. I could claw on the walls, I could bash on the doors, I could scream for help- I screamed until my lungs were sore, till my voice was hoarse. And nothing ever changes, nothing ever comes, nothing ever helps you, Tommy.” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 57:00, 29th Apr)

“And then you arrive, you arrive, and it was great! And then you left. You got on a train and you left.” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 57:12, 29th Apr)

And so, with this into acount, here's the villanized line:

“Oh my god the sunrise. Where’s the sun- I need to watch the sun rise. Oh! Tommy, I’ve waited so fucking long. Tommy, I have been waiting over a decade, in near darkness. This is my sunrise. This is my sunrise. This is mine! This is mine, Tubbo!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 54:43, 29th Apr)

It's triumphant if sad, he's elated to be amongst the living again, to be out from his personal hell, a limbo which he repeatedly decribes as being dark, and seeing the sun. It's his sunrise not in a way in which the fanart and fan songs depicts it as, not in a "I'm literally so possessive I'll take over the sun". Jeff the fandom OC got off hand there and went full cartoon villain who wants to take the sun for himself.

Actual Wilbur here is a man who commited suicide. A man with mental health in an incredibly poor state to this date, who was trapped alone, in darkness, isolated with his thoughts for more than a decade. And he's happy to see the sun again, to see the light, to feel warmth, to feel anything at all again and not continue being numb and screaming his throat hoarse

“Tommy, I thought I wanted to die. All those- That decade and and a half ago, I thought I wanted to die. I thought I wanted to die, but now I’ve seen what hell is, now I’ve seen the other side!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 58:05, 29th Apr)

“I have this lease on life, and by god, if life’s a fucking horse, I’m gonna ride it, Tommy! I’m sor- I’ve gotta go. I’ve got things to do, I’ve got things to plan. I’ll see you soon, alright? I’ll see you next time. Alright, bye guys! Bye, bye!” - (Tommy’s Breaking Into Prison To Kill Dream: 59:24, 29th Apr)

And this is the point in which the "grater than life monologuing villain" really gets out of hand. Because it goes so far people are unable to see a suicidal guy being given a new chance at life being happy to see the sun again as anything but malicious. And that's straight up concerning if you ask me

Especially when Wilbur gets so much shit to the point of being villanized for being happy to see the sun again while tommy can tell him this and nobody bats a single eye:

"You. You are the cause of all of this pain and trauma that so many people on this server went through. So you fucking have the audacity to come back here-" (Tommy)

“Are you trying to- Are you trying to make me- Tommy, are you trying to make me- You remember that time in the cave? Are you trying- Are you trying do- Are you trying to make me feel like I did back then, in Pogtopia? Are you trying to- Are you trying to make me feel as bad as I did back then? ‘Cause it’s not gonna work!” (Wilbur)

"You should feel even worse" (Tommy)

- (Tommy’s Wilbur's revival Dream SMP VOD: 54:22, 29th Apr)

Tommy can scream at him "Come here!" while taking out an axe when he's running around clearly overwhelmed with euphoria and everybody can just simply ignore it. He can just respond to his happiness with "It isn't fucking yours, Wil" and call him "fucking asshole" for not knowing Ranboo when... he was dead??? Nobody bats a single eye.

So what the fuck is the justification for the vicious way in which people see Wilbur? He can be threatened and told to die again when he had just come back from his personal hell, to which he fell because of suicide, and nobody holds it against anyone else.

He told tommy to shut up and immediately apologized:

“Will, this is so cool!” (Tommy)

“Tommy, shut up! I mean, Tommy, come over here. Tommy, come over here, come over here, man. It’s cool, it’s cool, it’s cool. Sorry, I, I-” (Alivebur)

– (Wilbur’s A Deck of Cards with a Green Smile on them: 26:08, 31st May)

And it's everything the fandom could talk about and make angsty animatics of for the next month.

But him being told to feel bad for enjoying life again? Him being threatened? Nothing. Nothing more than depicting him as threatening for... Feeling happy to see the sun again

It's tiring, man

[yeeyee-alumni]

Joel did not doom humanity (no matter how much the second game wants you to believe that)

To demonize Joel’s decision at the end of the first game (saving his surrogate daughter’s life) you need to bend over backwards and ignore any and all context the first game gave us with regards to who the Fireflies truly are. Because the truth of the matter is: a) they knocked Joel unconscious while he was trying to revive a young girl b) they drugged Ellie immediately to tear her body apart for their needs c) THEY DID NOT ASK ELLIE FOR PERMISSION to give her life for their cause, they didn’t even tell her she would have to die (Ellie was making plans with Joel after the giraffe scene, “Once we're done, we'll go wherever you want. Okay?”, clearly indicating she had no idea she would have to die) d) they did not let Ellie and Joel see each other to say their goodbyes e) they were about to walk Joel out into the wilderness without any of his gear/resources, which during the zombie apocalypse is a certain death sentence f) they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain (remember how Marlene promised Joel guns in return for delivering Ellie?) So even if you show them as much goodwill as possible, the Fireflies are still a bunch of assholes. If the exact opposite had happened, they let Joel go all on good terms and then he suddenly decided to turn around and murder everyone I would have called him a terrible person, but that is not what happened. As it stands, the Fireflies are shady and questionable at best. But it actually gets worse:

a) the procedure that would 100% kill Ellie had an incredibly low success rate (the doctor mentioned in his recording that every previous operation with other test subjects had failed) b) the same recording mentions cerebrospinal fluid having been extracted, meaning they were capable of performing a non-lethal spinal tab, but they’re unable to perform a non-lethal biopsy or craniotomy on Ellie? (this may seem like nit-picking, but actually further solidifies my point about how incompetent the Fireflies/Abby’s dad were/was) c) to add to their immense incompetence, mere hours after receiving Ellie they decide to IMMEDIATELY KILL THE ONLY PERSON KNOWN TO BE IMMUNE as oppose to keeping her alive for as long as possible to run every single test in existence on her. But let's paint a picture of the best case scenario, which is Jerry, the absolute legend that he is, actually manages to get a vaccine out of Ellie, what happens then? a) How are the Fireflies, who are nearly extinct at this point, supposed to MASS PRODUCE and NATIONWIDE DISTRIBUTE a vaccine? That is logistically impossible. b) More than likely, they would use the vaccine as a bargaining chip against FEDRA (granted, this is more a guess than a fact, but to believe they wouldn’t take advantage of the vaccine in the fight for political power against the government they’ve been fighting for years is beyond naïve). But let’s be even more generous: turns out the Fireflies are the most altruistic resistance group to have ever existed, they actually manage to produce and distribute the vaccine into every last corner of the country, everyone is immune. What now? a) You might be immune to spores and bites, but your immunity doesn’t help you when a clicker rips your throat out or a bloater crushes you to death, the infected can still kill you in numerous other ways. b) The faction wars going on are not gonna disappear overnight. WLF and Seraphites will continue to kill each other by the dozens every day, one could even argue that introducing a vaccine into the conflict would only cause things to escalate further. c) Numerous cannibals, hunters and bandits still roam the country, they will not abandon their practices overnight and they are arguably a much bigger threat than the infected to begin with. Just because everyone is immune does not mean that the world returns to sunshine, rainbows, and flowers. To imply that it would, means being simplistic and naive beyond reason. It should be obvious by now that Ellie’s death WOULD NOT HAVE IMPROVED ANYTHING. The chances of actually getting a vaccine are slim to none, the chances of vaccinating everyone are even more dour, and even then the overall situation would not improve much. With such bad prospects I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my child either. (I am aware that an argument can be made that none of these factors had an impact on Joel’s decision to save Ellie, yet they’re still crucial when making a judgement about the Fireflies/Abby’s dad). To summarize: a) Abby’s dad was incompetent and a horrible person (his conversation with Abby in the second game tells us that he would not be willing to sacrifice his own child, but if it’s someone else’s it’s a-okay for him). b) The Fireflies were a malicious and incompetent terrorist group with messed up morals. c) No, Joel did not doom humanity. Subsequently, Abby’s quest for revenge was not justified because the Fireflies and her dad were never justified in their actions to begin with. And this is only solidified by the second game having to retcon the hell out of all these arguments I just painstakingly illustrated and explained in order to even attempt to have Abby’s motivation be seen as justified. Only one example being how it was clearly established in the first game that they had MULTIPLE doctors in Salt Lake City (Marlene: “The doctors tell me that the cordyceps, the growth inside her, has somehow mutated.”; Ellie: “She said that they have their own little quarantine zone. With doctors there still trying to find a cure.”). Yet in the second game we are told by

Abby that actually no, turns out her dad was the only doctor that could have developed vaccine. And it doesn't take mental gymnastics to see why the second game takes it upon itself to alter most of the context of the first one: to (retroactively!) condemn Joel. HOWEVER, a sequel doesn’t get to pick and choose which established facts from the first entry it builds upon or what it gets to retroactively declare as non-canon only to have it fit their preferred narrative. Quite frankly, that’s bad writing. A sequel, in order to be considered well-written, has to not only be a natural continuation of the events, but has to stay consistent with the characters and the world that were previously set up. And if you have to alter much of the context to make it look like Joel condemned the world, isn't that the most obvious sign that he never actually did? And all of this effort for just one goal: to justify Abby’s quest for revenge and yet it still wasn’t and here’s why: Joel killed her dad in order to PREVENT HIM FROM KILLING HIS DAUGHTER. Abby on the other hand WILFULLY SLOW TORTURED Joel for what appears to be hours, prolonging his death for as long as possible, all for her own gratification (and we won't mention how she went through with it despite Ellie's crying and pleading). And don’t even try to make the argument about Abby wanting “justice”, Joel didn’t torture her dad out of revenge or for his own gratification - this is not justice, this is simply sadistic. A man killing someone who is about to murder their child in semi-self-defense cannot be compared to someone wilfully slow torturing someone to death for their own gratification, like Jesus, I didn’t think I’d have to spell that one out. I am aware that the second game tries to do whatever it can, including retconning their own original story, to paint Ellie and (especially!) Joel as evil. And for a considerable amount of the player base this actually worked, and while I cannot find it in me to condemn them (we all experience stories differently after all), I reserve the right to reject arguments in defense of Abby such as “all people are forced to do bad things during the apocalypse” and “does context even matter?”. If the only way you can defend/justify Abby's actions is to remove all context and nuance, then your reasoning is built on quicksand.

[technowoah]

THESEUS - a dsmp story ( DreamSMP x Queen!Reader)

CHAPTER FIVE : AND I REALIZE THREE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS AT THE EXACT SAME TIME.

Chapter Summary: You had gotten what you wanted, but at what cost? Nightmares ensue, and Dream’s true colors begin to show.

pairing: c!wilbur x queen!reader

an// IM BACK!! hopefully yall like this chaper cause this is the last one that I wrote in the past, Im writing chapter 6 rn so it might take a while. Also sorry for not posting requests I really wanted to get this chapter out there

⚠︎ swearing, dsmp spoliers(?), angst, arguing, smoking, explosions, gaslighting(?), not proofread.

Series Masterlist 

"Good job you two! This is all yours now.”

Dream had led you and Eret back to the castle, all of them still battered and bruised from the war they recently had. You had already taken off your armor and now you were wearing underneath your L'Manburg outfit that was torn and burnt showing some of your skin which was also burnt or cut. You had noticed on the way to the castle that Dream had kept on looking at the outfit that Eret and you had on with disgust, like a taunt.

You could finally relax in the huge castle that you apparently deserved because you and Eret had taken the first lives of the citizens of L'Manburg. In your heart you knew that L'Manburg was still a country. They all have two more lives and they will build the country up again with those two lives. You sighed then kept walking into the throne room. you looked at the two big thrones that sat next to each other. One for a king and one for a queen.

"Why are you standing there? Sit down! Relax!" Dream patted one of the thrones.

You and Eret had sat down on the thrones next to each other looking around the huge throne room and Dream smiling right in front of them. Once you both sat down you tried to sit up straight, but you wanted to slump down into the comfy, plush, velvet and gold chair. The two of them sat on velvet and gold thrones while in burnt and torn L'Manburg uniforms. It was a sight to see, and if someone didn't know the context of what just happened, this scene would've made sense to them.

"I'm happy you did this. You deserve all of this." Dream said while walking along the marble floor.

"It's beautiful, but I'm exhausted." You let your head fall to the side. You sighed wanting Dream to leave so you could finally get some rest.

"I bet."

"Eret are you okay?" You spoke up after Dream.

Eret had a look that you couldn't make out. He just stared off into space in his own mind. He shook his head after you called for him again.

"Yeah, yeah I am fine. I'm just thinking." Eret quickly responded.

"What are you thinking about?" Dream said in a monotone voice.

"If we did the right thing." Eret sighed.

You slowly nodded because you were thinking the exact same thing. They were traitors, you had built somewhat of a connection with those people you helped kill. And now what? you're living in a huge castle and apparently you "Shouldn't be feeling this way", Dream claimed.

"You two are overreacting. They are fine." Dream said bluntly while staring at them with a straight face.

That was a huge lie, their lives were taken today. They're not just “fine”.

"You two were never a part of that place anyways. This is your home! Why would you need to wear those hideous colors? They look bad on you, it's unflattering. There is no need to go back." Dream explained.

You hang your head not knowing what to say to the man, there wasn’t really anything to say but you spoke up hoping the words will come to you.

"I don't-"

"You don't have to say anything, it's okay. You're safe now. Did you get hurt?" Dream asked.

The bruises and scars said differently.

"Remember when I said that?" Dream pushed the question.

You rubbed a burn mark on your wrist and laughed a bit. "No! Actually I don't. We're safe now, but that doesn't mean we aren't hurt." You chuckled in disbelief.

"Well maybe if you listened to me you wouldn't be so anxious. If you listened you wouldn't have been so hesitant. You're safe." Dream said sternly.

"Maybe you're tired, Dream. We're all tired. Shall we go to bed?" Eret stood up and held out his hand to help you up from your seat.

You accepted his hand and started to follow Eret through the huge castle making your way through the huge, high ceiling halls. The three walked towards the king's and queen's room in the castle, Dream kept a slower pace and walked behind the two wanting to get one more word in before leaving the castle.

"If you two are ever in doubt just remember that you are on the right side of history." Dream said then turned around to leave the two alone.

You both stopped and turned around to see Dream’s back facing the both of you as he walked away. You and Eret eventually made it to your new bedrooms. There was a big door which held a huge room made for the both of them to sleep in and two separate rooms next to the bigger door which were made for one person. Eret and you stood in front of the bigger door staring at the intricate designs on the door not speaking to each other.

"So?" Eret laughed.

"So!" You exclaimed while chuckling.

"Are you okay sleeping in that huge room tonight?" Eret asked.

"I'm not totally comfortable with that, but it would be weird if we slept in the same bed. Don't get me wrong! You're a great friend, but-"

"Y/N/N stop! I'm okay with that too. I wasn't looking to sleep in the same bed. Yes we're married, but we're just staying friends, hey we might get a divorce later." Eret explained.

"If I do, we won't be king and queen anymore." You said softly to your husband.

"Is that what you want? To be "queen"?" Eret asked while putting air quotes around the word queen.

You paused for a moment then answered his question.

"I don't know where I'm supposed to be, Eret." You looked up at him sadly and he pulled you in for a hug. It took you everything you had to not cry into the L'Manburg uniform Eret was wearing. Today drained you mentally and physically, your hands were raw from shooting arrows, you had burn marks on your skin and your feet hurt from running through the kingdom. You weren’t sure about where you would go, because this didn't feel like your home.

"Let's go to bed and we'll talk in the morning. Rest on it because I'll happily divorce you so you can find your place in this huge kingdom." Eret laughed and let you out of his arms.

You chuckled and then let him go walking into what was supposed to be the queen's room and right next to it was the king's room which they both walked in after saying goodnight and closing their doors finally having time to themselves after a long day.

You finally took off the L'Manburg uniform and laid it on a velvet chair in the corner of the huge room. You stared at the uniform before going to the nearest closet and picking out something to wear for that night. The queen's room was basically the huge couple's room that you found before, but just with a smaller bed. There were still trinkets, jewelry and even clothes in the closet. you took a nightgown out of the closet and sat on the plush bed. You ended up laying down staring at the high ceiling thinking of the predicament Eret's question brought.

You finally retired for the night and crawled into bed and got under the soft covers. The window was open so a soft cool breeze was blowing through the room letting the curtains flow with the breeze. If you left you wouldn't have anywhere to go except back to L'Manburg, they would never let you back even if you tried. They probably hated your guts by now, so maybe divorcing wasn't a good idea. You had a set home here, you had food, clothes, and you weren't under attack every minute. you didn't have to watch your back for any enemies.

Your mind slowed down as you finally lulled yourself into a deep sleep forgetting the troubles in your mind for only a moment.

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

The sunset fell over the horizon making it a gold, red color. It was beautiful. The trees were illuminated and the lakes had a certain glow to them. you could see mobs began to crawl out of the ground and caves, but you was safe up here.

You looked down and saw the familiar obsidian walls. It seemed like a faint memory, but in reality the walls were real. It was like you could feel the stone underneath your feet at this moment. you could see inside L'Manburg.

you saw Tubbo and Tommy laying in the grass talking to one another. you saw Fundy sleeping in the grass next to them. There were two new faces you had never seen before. It was a woman with short pink hair and another man with a shaved head. It might've been your mind putting people in your dreams to fill space. Then you saw Eret sitting by a small river letting his bare feet flow in the water. It was a peaceful scene.

"Beautiful sunset isn't it?" A voice showed up beside you.

It was Wilbur. He had his uniform on, it was clean like the war didn't even happen.

"It is really beautiful." You agreed watching the sun continue to lower over the trees.

"You know everything the sun touches is yours? It's all of ours. It just so happens that you can see the sunset and sunrise from L'Manburg. You can do anything as long as you see the sun rise and fall." Wilbur said, keeping his gaze soft at the sunset.

You hummed but stayed quiet admiring his words and the sunset.

"Let me tell you what I wish I'd known when I was young and dreamed of glory. You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story. After you took one of my lives away I understand now. You can't control other people and their motivations."

You hang your head in disappointment, but then Wilbur continued.

"But I know that we can win. I know that greatness lies in you, but remember from here on in that history has its eyes on you. History will forever have its eyes on you no matter what you do." Wilbur looked into your eyes as the sun set on the two of them the stars began to shine.

The light brown eyes Wilbur had turned darker because of the sunlight being gone. You looked out back at the mobs in the forest and the huge towers in the sky made the kingdoms members. you turned around and looked into L'Manburg. Or what was considered L'Manburg.

There was no one there anymore, instead of people there were huge amounts of TNT that filled the walls behind them. you could hear faint voices around them, people that you didn't know. It sounded like chaos. you whipped your head around to Wilbur who was dressed in a brown tattered trench coat, brown pants, and a white shirt instead of the L'Manburg uniform.

He had a cigarette in his mouth and matches in his hands. He smirked at you as the voices around you got louder and your head sounded like you were in the middle of a tornado. your head was buzzing as your eyes couldn't focus on Wilbur in front of you. It felt like these moments were happening right in front of your all at one time.

"You want to be a hero Tommy?"

"You know if I die, this country goes down with me."

"if respect is the only thing protecting you from a knife in the back, then respect is nothing, right?"

"Kill me, Phil. Phil, kill me, Phil kill me! Phil, stab me with the sword, murder me now, kill me! Look-"

"You know Y/N" Wilbur started next to you. He lit a match and turned around to L'Manburg which was now filled with TNT.

"Somethings. Somethings were never meant to be." He threw the match into the huge pile of TNT and all in a second the obsidian underneath your feet disappeared as you fell into the explosion beneath you.

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

"Fuck! Where am I?!" You shot up from your sleeping position in a cold sweat.

You frantically felt around the bed trying to convince yourself that you were physically at the castle in your bed. You finally caught your breath and laid back down in your bed finding yourself staring at the ceiling again. Even with the window open blowing cool air into the room, your skin still felt hot. You ended up tossing the covers off of you and making your way towards the entrance of the kingdom to get some air.

That dream was so much stuff in it you couldn't comprehend all of it. It was like Wilbur was there as if he was talking to you directly and it wasn't a dream and it made you second guess yourself and think that it may have not been a dream. You finally made it outside and sat on one of the steps that led people up into the kingdom. you sighed and breathed in the fresh air and it immediately relaxed your body and mind. You were alive, you were here and sadly Wilbur wasn't there. You closed your eyes and felt the breeze around you until you were startled by a figure beside you.

"You're up late. I thought you said you were mentally tired." Dream chuckled sitting beside you.

"I had a bad dream." You sighed.

"Hey don't take my name in vain like that" Dream laughed trying to bring up your mood.

Dream sighed and stood back up when he didn't get a response from his companion.

"Come one, let's go. Let's get your mind off of the one bad dream." Dream held his hand out, gesturing to you to take it.

You took his hand and then released it letting him lead the way to wherever the wind may take them. The dream is currently still stuck in your head. The voices from different people confused you and made your head spin.

"You want to be a hero Tommy?" What did that mean? Was someone threatening Tommy? Will someone threaten Tommy? You grew to care for that kid.

Who said "If I die, this country goes down with me"? What country. L'Manburg?

"If respect is the only thing protecting you from a knife in the back, then respect is nothing, right?" That one stumped you the most. you didn't even know if this was being spoken to you or to someone else. All of them except for the Tommy one.

Were they all even dreams? The one that haunted your mind the most was the one where someone was telling a man named Phil to kill them. Were you there for that moment? Did Phil kill the person? Who was Phil? All these thoughts and questions plagued your mind so much that your feet mindlessly carried you wherever Dream led you to.

"Here we are." Dream led You on top of a hill, a tall enough hill to see the main attraction. The place you missed the most, L'Manburg.

Tears started to form in your eyes and you tried blinking them away. All the moments of that dream appeared in your brain, but even stronger. you never felt these emotions before. Maybe L'Manburg was your home all along. you missed seeing Tubbo, Tommy, Eret and Fundy doing their own thing while your and Wilbur had a deep talk inside the van. you had spent weeks with them growing too attached to them and then ended up becoming a traitor.

"That place. You never belonged there. You're too good for them." Dream started and you stayed quiet watching the stars begin to disappear.

"Do you trust me?" Dream asked.

You stayed quiet not having the answer he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear you say that you trusted him when in reality you couldn’t, you weren't fully there yet, not anymore. 

"They lied to you. It's not your home." Dream continued on letting you listen and not talk.

"How did you know if someone said it was my home or not?" You asked, startled.

"I might've been keeping an eye on you. I wanted to make sure my flower was okay." Dream kept his gaze on L'Manburg.

"Stop calling me that." You sighed.

"I never started. This was the first time I said that. Who called you flower?" Dream suddenly got serious, staring at you.

you kept your sights on the obsidian walls, not sparing him a glance. The stars began to fade and the sun peeked over the horizon. As they stayed longer the sun rose over the walls of L'Manburg. You started to remember the words in the dream you had.

"You know everything the sun touches is yours? It's all of ours. It just so happens that you can see the sunset and sunrise from L'Manburg. You can do anything as long as you see the sun rise and fall."

L'Manburg stands for independence. Independence. That word kept ringing through your head like a mantra until a few voices below the hill and near the walls alerted you.

"HEY! Hey Wilbur! Give me back my shit!" Tommy yelled as he stomped after the older man.

"Wilbur get Tommy to stop shouting and give him his swords back please!" Fundy yelled trailing behind the two.

"No not until he learns not to go start stabbing shit!" Wilbur yelled back at the other two.

You missed that. you missed the bickering and the nonsense they all shared. you were upset that Tommy still hadn't learned his lesson and you wished you were there beside them at that moment.

Dream spoke up giving you a look you couldn’t quite get. "You are never allowed to step inside those walls again.

"What gives you the right to tell me what and what not to do? Who does that make you? Who do you think-"

"YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO GO IN THOSE WALLS!" Dream yelled getting dangerously close to you.

You continued to stare at those blue eyes as the bright sun rose over the dark walls of L’Manburg. you didn't say anything but descended down the mountain alone with the sounds of Tommy, Fundy, and Wilbur bickering in the background, wishing you were there and not next to the man next to you who was staring at you angrily.

"I know what’s good for you! I know what's good for this country! Just trust me Y/N!" Dream yelled starting an argument

"Would you calm down! You came here to be all quiet and now you're yelling at me. You might want to be quiet before Wilbur hears you. Or do you want me to get him myself?" You yelled back, getting furious.

"Oh you wish! He doesn't care for you as much as me, Sapnap and George do! They agree as well!"

"Don't put words into his mouth!" You accused

"Oh! So if he cares so fucking much he would've help save you. And do you know what would happen if he saved you?! You would've died! I saved you! You were in a perfect situation and all you had to do is not complain! You're always overreacting." Dream ended with a huff and rolled his eyes while turning away..

you were speechless at this point. Overwhelming emotions consumed you. you couldn't believe you were overreacting. Maybe Wilbur wasn't everything you needed. you were overreacting, you were being selfish too. Dream was right. Dream walked over to you pulling you in a hug with L'Manburg was still in your sights.

"I did everything because I love you. You're too precious for them, you're not for them. They don't deserve you, you deserve someone who wants the best for you. A flower that needs a home and I'm here to give it to you." Dream softly explained.

Your eyes kept tearing up at the words and different emotions flowing through you. The sights on L'Manburg make your memories and questions come back. Where did you belong? But more importantly who was telling the truth?

Taglist: @hi-imuwu @k-l-a-w-s