#no idea what reason there would be to justify it but Id Like It so thats all thats important akjsdhjas

[comet-frog]

i cant think of a caption

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for removing “minor” from my bio?

there’s been a lot of posts about this, wondering about my situation. so i turned 16 fairly recently. this does make me still a minor, but the age of consent in my country is 16, so i don’t feel like i’m being sneaky/misbehaving/a freak (lol) when i’m lurking in nsfw stuff anymore.

i still don’t interact with it (i’m lurking, no liking, reblogging etc) so there’s no connection at all to my blog. i probably wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that anyway, since most ones (justifiably) require an age in your bio which i just have not put. i understand why blogs require this, but i don’t think i’m putting anyone in danger because

a) not interacting, so again there’s no link to my blog

b) according to the posts this is relatively common? there would be cases about it all the time otherwise

anyway, a lot of blogs that had “minors dni” in their bio followed me when i still had minor in my bio (technically it was actually in my pinned, but again not hard to find). i don’t think they were being malicious, just the nature of the circles i’m in on tumblr means there’ll be a lot of kinky people (think d&d) and they just didn’t check.

i don’t think it’s my responsibility to block them, they’re breaking their own DNI, not me, and not everyone goes through their new followers blogs.

however now with the minor part gone, they won’t know if i break their dni or not.

i’m not planning to and haven’t interacted with any primarily nsfw blogs anyway (some of my friends do “hornypost” and i just ignore it) because to be completely honest doing anything nsfw on my main is kinda a turn off lol.

lurking feels safer and more comfortable so i think i’ll stick with that.

but yeah, i’m worried people won’t be able to uphold their boundaries when interacting with me directly anymore, but i also feel like i’m maybe not obligated to disclose that? i get id be in the wrong if i was Lying about my age to get into nsfw spaces, but i’m not doing that.

i don’t feel comfortable disclosing my age on my blog anyway, minor was a blanket term i was comfortable with to get nsfw blogs to stay away but i feel like i’m in a weird in between space atm (i know. i know im still a minor. but i’m in an adjusting period and i’m trying to get comfortable with the idea of being an adult in two years.)

a lot of this info is probably irrelevant, but maybe i am an asshole for other reasons, so. mod if this gets deleted for being too long/weird/rambley i understand 👍

What are these acronyms?

[marinettesaltprompts]

The Maribat deconstruction got me thinking: am I the only one who thinks Adribat is a more....plausible (??is that the word) concept than Maribat? Like, not even in a romantic sense but a familial platonic sense.

Think about it, he's :

got the tragic backstory & suffered from neglect

canonically been abused waaaaay beyond school bullies

taken for granted by adults (primarily his dad & Master Fu) and by his peers (LB)

dealing with the existential crisis of not being human if we go the sentimonster route.

Look, I get that trauma & suffering should NEVER be a competition but when you think abt it, Adrien's suffered just as much, if not more so than Mari ever did even with Chloe & Lila in the picture. You could argue that some of what she suffers in salt fics (isolation, no support system, emotional suppression, harassment) are ALSO things Adrien goes through bcz while he's a superhero like her, UNlike her, his home life sucks.

So if there's either hero the Bat Fam would empathize with more, it's him. Yes, they can hold him accountable for screw ups but if we go the Good Parent!Bruce route, he can give Adrien the physical & nuanced emotional training he needs to spot red flags & deal with them beyond passivity. The training is harsh but at least he doesn't play favourites, giving Adrien no excuse to slack off & proper motivation to mature. Plus, in the Bat Fam, everyone has clear roles & secrets aside, nobody strings anyone along, offering him a reliable structure to fall back on.

He doesn't come into the Bat Fam expecting to be in charge. Instead, the nitty-grittiness would push him to be more independent & decisive instead of impulsive.

If LB tries to call him out, he could point out how for all she claims to be the 'responsible professional hero', she REacted instead of acted & if real IDs are thrown in the mix, he can call out how she just went with the 'woe is me' route, resenting that everyone didn't jump on her call for a witch hunt when she could've communicated to them privately.

Sorry, this turned out longer & less explicitly mari salt-centric than I thought but I tried to stay objective. I hope you don't mind.

Technically everyone would have their own opinion about whether a Miraculous/Batman crossover could actually work. In my opinion however, I believe that the best bet for a good crossover would be through Adrien more than Marinette, in part because of the reasoning you gave, but also because Adrien would fit the idea of a Batfamily member more thematically than Ladybug ever could. If anything, he's like Catwoman but without the whole stealing bit.

Keep in mind that the whole Maribat AU was created with the goal of creating a salt fic (albiet with a crossover), and the OG creator even took a character that was no way romantical and turned him OOC to make their convoluted idea work, ironically in a method reminding me of the "My Immortal" Harry Potter fanfic. Regardless how it later developed, the original idea was pure salt, albiet one that took off because of everyone's hate boner for any character that wasn't Marinette, with people later trying to justify it for one reason or another. It's an idea that should have never worked in the first place outside of this context. In contrast though, Adribat would actually work because of a genuine commonality connection.

Also I don't mind talking about Adrien on this blog. In my mind, Marinette salt and Adrien sugar are the one and the same on this blog, because the salt of one character is usally sugar of the other due to how these prompts go.

Hell, my entire blog was made in opposition to the more well know Adrien Salt Blog made by another individual, which has both plenty of Adrien salt and LOTS of Marinette sugar, though I would call the latter justification for Marinette's own bad behavior as it never discusses her own issues, it just let's her go off scott free by pinning the blame all on Adrien.

In any case, I like your idea! If you or anyone else want's to share any Adribat prompts that you got, feel free to send them here!

[wszczebrzyszynie]

I think you once made a post about polish creatures/folklore, but it was a while ago. What are some of your favorite folklore stories or creatures?

Hmm. This is a fun one. The more i think about it, i think i like the slightly harmful demons; the ones that cant really fight with what they became, as a lot of slavic demons were normal people durning their life. First demon that comes to mind when i say that is strzyga (one of the vampire-like demons). According to the silesian version of strzygi (written by Dorota Simonides), they were born with two hearts and two souls, and they live their first life normally, as people, often unaware of their fate. Its only after they die that they realize what they really are; to survive they have to feed on living people, so that their bodies wont decompose. The reason why strzygi and other vampire like demons are interesting to me, other than the tragedy, i suppose, is how the belief in them affeced the real world at that time? Strzygi, like all other vampires, had different "origins"; in some cases they were born this way, in some they became one early in childhood (not getting baptised/getting baptised unproperly), by other actions of their parents (not being breastfeed, being born to unmarried parents), or later in life, by the choices they made (being greedy or cruel was mentioned there somewhere, and, obviously, suicide, the main thing that turned people into demons). So when someone died and was assumed to be a strzyga (or an upiór, or another vampire like demon, really), to ensure safety of the people around, they would be burried face down, or their body would get beheaded and the head would be burried in between their legs, or they would have a wooden stake stuck in their heart; if they would be burried at all, because according to advice for dealing with Strzygi from 1772, best way to kill it is by either ripping its heart out, put pig excrement in its mouth, or just burn the body. Theres also a mention of, hm, taking the blood of an assumed Strzyga, mixing it with beverage and drinking it. Im not a vampire person; i find them quite boring in most stories, personally, but i like all kinds of upiórs a lot because of the burial precautions taken againt them, as well as the idea of two souls, one of which keeps on forcefully reanimating the body. I think its more fun than other (popular) vampire media ive seen. I could talk a lot here about the nature of demons like strzyga and upiór because the thing about vampires is that they existed in different versions not only all over the world but also in different regions, meaning different parts of poland had different ideas and beliefs, but its such a long, complicated and vast topic im not really sure if i want to tackle it myself

Like i said, a lot of demons are created out of human souls, and there is often some tragedy to it... there was one very interesting read about Rusałki and how they try and fail to imitate human lives, but i dont remember how it was called and how to find it now. Theres also just a lot of joyful or hm, semi justified murder, which is very fun as well. Ive said so much about strzygi already i feel like i should leave it at that, so ill just mention; i like beboks of all kind (child eating boogeyman demons) błedne ognie (fake lights that guide people further away from the path), płanetnicy (cloud demons; id love to draw them one day, as theyre one of the more well described but still vague demons poland has to offer. I say vague, because they were described as older men, young but very tall people with tiny wings on the sides, androgynous looking beings, people with child bodies and heads of old men, normal looking people but with big heads, or people with black skin. The fun thing about them from an artist perspective is that they usually looked like people, so much so that they could step down from the sky and live among them again, but had long strings that reached the sky, that they used to arrange the clouds. A lot of the times described with giant hats, too), and skarbnik (most well known polish mine demon). I like nature related and house demons too, especially protective/neutral ones; something about living along with another being in either a mutual relationship, or not bothering them - they wont bother me kind of thing. I like it

[transhawks]

I know you're writing a fic with Twice is in (and also actually appreciate his character), so do you got ideas, rules whatever, on how to write his dialog? Ll the fics ive read never feels right unless it's straight from the source material 😭

Hey! So, I've definitely played around with this in writing. Let me show some examples and word vomit about Twice. I will say that while I often return to the manga and observe how he talks, I also have developed LOTs of head-canons, so much of this is my own ideas/fanon. When I wrote You in 2020, it was very much an experimental fic, stream of consciousness kind of fic. And I encourage people to play around if they are doing something like solely focusing on Jin. In this case I essentially wrote it in Second person, to emphasize the idea of a fractured mind/depersonalization or the feeling as if "I'm not the real one" that Twice had. Here's how I showcased the split:

This is how I described Jin's initial "split" by the way. Note there's actually THREE different ones - I have a personal theory there's actually three personalities, the dominant Jin who is incredibly traumatized and slightly regressing in maturity, the older, quieter maturer personality who shows up only when we see into his thoughts, who seems pensive and contemplative (most of 115 is his narration) and kind of gives Twice's manga international narration a film-noir like quality, and the vocal "negative" voice that I guess either contradicts voice 1 or functions like an id to the ego.

Before anyone chimes in with "FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY IS TRASH AND DEBUNK-", yes, I know, but I find the idea of splitting the mind like this useful for literature, specifically, not real life. And I suspect a lot of writers do as well, so the idea of a "split" mind where a voice voices the things no one should want to say or think as Horikoshi has created here works well in that framework. Hence, when I write the split in Jin's mind, I use it as a way for me to figure how what's with his mind.

One of the biggest issues is that Jin's issues are very much pop-culture/fantasy mental illness because no disorder fits him well. For one thing, Jin's trauma is also a neurological one because he clearly had brain damage from the whole experience that cause his scar. And then it's like Horikoshi decided to take elements of schizoaffective psychosis, tourette's, BPD, DID, and OCD and PTSD and throw in "actual force blunt force brain damage" into the loop. That's not to say Twice's struggles aren't realistic/relatable - they totally are, but whatever he has isn't exactly an accurate depiction of anything out there (especially since it's so quirk-based). Personally, tailoring it to fit something neatly, I think, would do a big disservice to his character so I don't strive for that sort of realism and just work with what Horikoshi outlines for us.

Anyway, that is to say that often when I try to depict mental illness in writing, especially from the perspective of the ill person, I try to incorporate elements of disorder into the writing itself stylistically (I sometimes do this with writing Hawks as well). A lot of people just only strictly stick to this past-tense (or present) third person limited way of writing, and I think there's fun in throwing that out and using characters like Twice as reasons to do it. Or just playing around with formatting.

Anyway, this is how I try to depict it from a Third Person Limited perspective in Irreversible.

So first off, I distinguish between the spoken voices Jin has by bolding the contradictory voice. Internally, I depict intrusive thoughts by keeping it bolding, putting in parenthesis, and then justifying the text to the right. It breaks up the paragraph and creates the "element of disorder" I spoke about earlier. Here's what that can look like at it's most disordered, where there's essentially a mental conversation written out.

There's also a clear difference in spoken vs internal because while internally the voice addresses Jin himself to create an element of insecurity (questioning if he even deserves Toga's kindness), it's only in speech that he'll contradict Jin after he says something. This doesn't always happen, and I don't think every sentence needs it. Jin has moments in-manga where he doesn't speak like this and I also think it correlates with emotional state (interestingly a really upset Twice can be more "together").

But it's not as simple as "Jin says something, bold immediately contradicts it." That would make it boring to both read and write. My suggestion to have an actual reaction by a Jin to the bolded words - because it happens in canon (sometimes he tries to stop himself from talking further).

In this sentence, I make Jin immediately refute the previous sentence. It's not a full on back and forth, but it does show that he's aware the other voice is saying things and what it is saying. Lastly, this is more me on how to actually make it matter besides keeping it accurate to canon characterization. First, Jin is funny. Naturally he's funny and very blunt, but his illness is also used by Horikoshi for tension relief and to kill the seriousness or somber mood the LoV scenes can evolve into. Do not be afraid to use this for humor because as a character, Horikoshi DOES do this HOWEVER, this is not all Jin is, and when showing his internal life, there's far more seriousness to it all. But if you just want to write Jin instead of focusing on him, I think acknowledging he has a (wacky, immature and slapstick-y) sense of humor and in turn can be a funny character is not a bad thing. He lends himself well to physical comedy so don't be afraid of writing him doing weird things or making funny gestures.

Two, make the words count. At the end of the day, you're writing a story. You are not only conveying personality through these words, you are hopefully moving plot forward, or using the space you have carefully. Do not be afraid to have the contradictory voice say something poignant, something no one else would say, or ominous that can be used as foreshadowing for later parts of your story. Remember, these are characters that are meant to tell stories so use them.

[d8tl55c]

what if VI part 3 is just a weird fever dream flashback of all the reasons victim thinks he's right and his actions are completely justified

the first bit exactly explains how he survived his Flash file deleting, logically and clearly (clinically? detached from the emotion of the experience?), but the animation quality and/or style and tone are completely different to recent AvA, like something's missing, or this memory isn't all there anymore.

and think Meet the Pyro level of over-positivity in the beginning

leaning the ways of the city. snippets of how Rocket Corp. came to be, then built up over time.

maybe the mercs are victim's buddies like how orange has CG (credit for this idea to someone else.. ill find it... ghhgh it's a fanart post i think? i saw it so long ago.....(edit: so so sorry it's hopeless it's buried DEEP in my likes and i can't find it on vic or agent's tags- if someone else knows what it is that'd help ill link it later ANYWAY))?

most importantly, he learns that he's got charm and a knack for bringing other people together to do what he wants

interspersed with more and more doubts that are, at first, crushed into nothing - he'll never forget why he's doing this - but are getting louder in his ear

until the first test of the Box or a similar prototype of one of his worrying technologies: it goes bad.

unnamed worker 427 gets hurt in some horrifying way or whatever.

it's vic's call whether or not to continue.

this would be the first big step in the right direction, but is it... y'know... still the right direction?

vic realizes the little voice buzzing furiously in his ear all the time is too appalled to respond.

it's quiet for once.

huh. that's... nice.

they go ahead.

unreality of the vfx, editing, sound effects gets way worse from here. the colors are too strong or too washed out, there's tunnel vision vignettes hiding just enough detail from view to let you imagine what might be back there, and reports from hundreds of tests of various tech that you'd REALLY WANT TO GO 100% RIGHT with long sections redacted, and a thick sharpie lying next to the stack on vic's desk.

the only actually nice parts are like... slice of life of the nice parts of working in a big office building. setting up fun stuff to keep employee morale up (inspiration: RC company event shirts made by someone else lol) and such. but it's never too long before the work continues.

and things are going perfectly to plan.

...

whatever is left of the "voice" that was keeping him in check is now small and helpless

and he HATES IT FOR THAT

HE IS NOTHING LIKE (HE USED TO BE) THAT PATHETIC CREATURE

sometimes he practices fighting in his head with vicious fantasies of beating it down-

.

cough

uh,

anyway im curious about his perspective on all this

the description saying, "Anything goes, in The Box" on part 2 was SO CHILLING when i noticed it(!!!!!!), not to mention the contents of the ep itself- and id love a microscope pointed at his head, in a fic or somehow jammed into canon.

his favorite weapon is a WHIP guys?????

WHAT is going on in there

[edwad]

it’s not that you think marx should be read primarily as an economist. it’s that your project of contextualizing marx in terms of the economic thought that both predates and follows him is valuable, but it runs up against hard limits in terms of both explanatory power and ability to generate practice that you can only solve by situating marx in the context of the actual political movements that both produced and drew from him and the concrete actions that resulted (cont.)

you wont find the key to a systemic analysis of capitalism purely in the realm of ideas, whether they be economic, philosophical, or political, you need to connect your analysis to some sort of concrete political reality for it to have any teeth. sure, no movement has succeeded at ‘achieving communism’ but they have made undeniable gains in the anti-colonial struggle and general social welfare (cont.) the latter thing, despite what you say frustratingly often, is not simply reducible to social democracy, and it shows how little understanding you have of the actual material history (as opposed to ideological), that you think western social democracy is comparable to the social welfare achievements of socialist countries, and that’s without even taking to account that the former is directly predicated on imperialism and neo-colonial exploitation of the global south

im finally getting around to this 3-message wall of text which i should realistically ignore because its not really productive and its clear by the end that youre just typing your frustrations at me, but it gives me a chance to say a bit more about a particular angle of what im doing with marx.

you say:

"your project of contextualizing marx in terms of the economic thought that both predates and follows him [...] runs up against hard limits in terms of both explanatory power and ability to generate practice that you can only solve by situating marx in the context of the actual political movements that both produced and drew from him and the concrete actions that resulted"

what limits? and what explanatory power is lost here? you dont say, although your immediate pivot toward the need to "generate practice" implies that youre suggesting some sort of practice-oriented information. frankly, i dont really understand why this enters here. if marx is totally wrong (which is further than i would go!) and nothing can be salvaged from him whatsoever, you would be upset because this critique of him wouldnt generate immediate practice? on what grounds could that desire for practice even be justified? marxist ones? some new, un-marxist one which can only come out of this (assumed to be, for sake of argument) successful critique of marx which still, for some reason, is immediately interested in the development of practice (sounding an awful lot like marxism btw)? or is your problem simply that it fails to account for actual marxisms after marx? if its the last option, then thats a non-criticism if part of my point is that i am trying to say something new about marx. the fact that he might've been received otherwise would only work as a refutation of my criticism if it weren't a necessary part of the criticism itself (ie, id be wrong for agreeing with myself).

whichever one of these it is, it misses the point. however it works as a segue to what i imagine you really want to talk about, which is concrete struggles. your initial way of getting there is to try and make me reckon with a proper contextualization of marx in his political environment as well as those he influenced. the latter, as ive just said, isn't necessarily damning (because it is part of my point), but the former is definitely worth lingering on.

so you say in your second message

"you wont find the key to a systemic analysis of capitalism purely in the realm of ideas, whether they be economic, philosophical, or political, you need to connect your analysis to some sort of concrete political reality for it to have any teeth"

you seem to think i fail to do this. ironically, i see my chief criticism of marx to be that *he* fails to do this. he tries to identify the development of political economy out of patterns of class struggle, but he constantly gets the facts wrong on both counts. yet even if we could take him at his word and assume he got all of these things right (which is definitely necessary for coming to terms with the nature of marx's project as he saw it), then i would argue that he actually saw his political environment as being shaped, in large part, by the reception of political economy in the workers' movement. this is already clear from the radical/popular economic literature which, in his eyes, arose and declined alongside (and, to some extent, within) the ricardian school, which is why he deals with it at length in theories of surplus value (in a deliberately historical mode, for the record). the socialist appropriation of economic categories to explain the ills of capitalism is something which animates much of his work beginning in the 40s. for example, in the poverty of philosophy, he announces at the outset that he aims to "protest" the "double error" of seeing proudhon as a "good German philosopher" or "one of the ablest French economists" on the basis of marx's being both german and an economist. this goes to show the economic terrain of marx's approach to his socialist rivals and how significant the economic angle was to him and to the movement around him more broadly. the critique of his rivals (especially proudhon) as economic thinkers appears again in capital, as william clare roberts has demonstrated in his work.

but also, at a different level, he very deliberately intervenes in engels' anti-dühring by contributing a single chapter which is *specifically* designed to take dühring to task for his critical history of political economy, in large part (as reading the text makes obvious) because marx alleges that dühring gets the history wrong. this was because, among other things, dühring's work was having a large influence on the german socialist movement and several of marx and engels' peers. this wasn't some apolitical intervention, it had meaningful stakes for marx's practical work. clearly, the critique of political economy and the ability to properly account for the history of economic thought was politically significant for both marx and the socialist movement around him. if i am being accused of over-estimating this angle, then that would only serve as another criticism of marx himself.

however, you continue (or, really, you pivot entirely, but you continue talking)

"sure, no movement has succeeded at ‘achieving communism’ but they have made undeniable gains in the anti-colonial struggle and general social welfare[.] the latter thing, despite what you say frustratingly often, is not simply reducible to social democracy, and it shows how little understanding you have of the actual material history (as opposed to ideological), that you think western social democracy is comparable to the social welfare achievements of socialist countries, and that’s without even taking to account that the former is directly predicated on imperialism and neo-colonial exploitation of the global south

this has absolutely nothing to do with what im dealing with here, and its bizarre of you to include it in the first place, not least because you seem to think that by me criticizing communists around me for not having a political horizon capable of overcoming social democracy, that i am overly critical of socialist experiments in the 20th century for feeding themselves. if anything, i think the point of political theory should be to achieve the greatest possible "good" (whatever that might be taken to mean) for the greatest majority of people. despite their obvious flaws, i count the 20th century socialist experiments as among the greatest examples of social organization ever achieved and if communism were proven to be impossible tomorrow, i would be a dogmatic social democrat (ive actually said this for years).

im not the cartoonish ultra leftist that some of you think i am, as if i care more about establishing some magical bar for communism than i do about the people who are supposed to reach it and live in it. i dont say any of those things "frustratingly often", and youre unable to correctly attribute my own views to me, which i think is pretty telling. if anything, the things i try to talk about here dont stem from an allergy to anything less than whatever perfect ideal i might hold in my head, its out of a frustration with communists who dont even recognize that they might as well be social democrats. thats not necessarily an insult (ive worked with a lot of good social democrats in my life and will continue to do it as long as it produces worthwhile results), its just supposed to clarify the stakes and what i see as the limits to their analysis of the system (which ought to matter to them, even if i dont get much out of it!).

my focus on the history of economic thought as it relates to marx's critique of political economy, is admittedly pretty far removed from some of this stuff, but i dont take that distance between the two as a problem of my ability to reckon with the global south or the success-rate of communist movements around the world, i take it as an issue which only results from the overexertion of your stretched criticism to try and get me to talk about something else. next time you want my opinion on something other than what im posting about, you can just ask!

[lover-of-mine]

I want to talk about the idea of “if season 7 was season 1, everyone would be shipping bt” because essentially what that is saying is “if these characters weren’t these characters everyone would ship them” because Tommy wouldn’t have his past with Chim, Hen, and Gerrard (at least we wouldn’t know it so you could make it anything you want like make it where he didn’t actually say or do anything bad under Gerrard) and Buck wouldn’t have his past with the 118 and his parents that tells us everything about his character (what he prefers the name Buck, why he’s so eager to please, his previous relationship with sex, etc).

Like sure, if you strip away all the character development you can ship any two characters because there’s nothing there to clash you can make up whatever you want. The reason so many of us don’t think these characters work together is because we KNOW the characters and what we know of their characters after 6 seasons makes them incompatible.

All that being said I would still argue that even if season 7 was season 1 I still wouldn’t be a big BT shipper id just be in the “eh they’re ok I guess” camp because they don’t have great chemistry and even without knowing the characters pasts and personalities Tommy still comes off stiff and dismissive - it’s just 10x worse when you know his past and you know Buck at his core. AND if season 7 were season 1 that just means they would reveal that past likely in a different way and so it would become apparent eventually how bad of a fit they are.

I agree. If you need to just plain erase most of canon to justify things, you're not shipping characters, you're shipping an idea, and sure, you can headcanon anything you feel like, but you can't expect everyone to agree with you because you are creating different characters. The show made a point to show that they are incompatible and if you take a minute to look at it without the high that comes with Buck being bi, you can see that. Sure, it would be less obvious, but we would still have Buck and Eddie being established as partners because there is a lot of buddie's friendship in the season, and while Tommy would be easier to like without the begins episodes context and the way he's all of Buck's previous love interests in one person, so we wouldn't have the worry that Buck is making the same mistakes he always does, he still comes out as dismissive, the situation would just be easier to ignore because we wouldn't know enough. We might not have enough context on Tommy, but we do have enough context on Buck to infer that this is going nowhere. If the only way to pretend they are going somewhere is to erase the whole show, then do they really have something?

[wisteria-winter]

I have a nagging feeling that the reason sinners can't go to the other rings is because it would solve the proposed problem of overpopulation in hell.

Though that begs the question, if it is simply overpopulation that is the problem, they why would Charlie not just try and relocate sinners to the other rings?

Her current goal is practically to dump people in heaven, has she not considered that heaven might also have an overpopulation problem? Or at least considered the fact that they might get one if she sends people up there?

All she would be doing would be making her problem heavens problem instead.

In that regard I can understand heaven not wanting to support her idea, it would in essence just bring a mess their way.

So then the question goes, would they have anything against sinners moving to other rings?

If the exterminators would still happen then I can imagine they wouldn't appreciate spreading out all the sinners, but apart from that, why would they care?

Meaning that either:

A: The nature of hell is that sinners can only be in pride. Which just begs the question of, why?

or B: Lucifer or the deadly sins are for some reason preventing sinners from moving. So it would be more like an airport not allowing you to fly than there being an invisible wall preventing you from going through.

(Might simply be that you need an ID and it's pretty hard to get an ID if you just pop into existens in hell after dying)

Generally, in my mind it sounds more reasonable that it's option B, with the reasoning being that it was part of the agreement when establishing the function of the exterminators.

Like, The exorcists will only travel to the Pride ring, as long as there are no sinners outside of Pride.

I also imagen that the exorcists don't really see a distinction between sinners and hellborn. Like if Adam had any qualms about that, then he shouldn't have been so willing to choose Charlie's Hotel as the first place of attack.

I'd imagine something more cruel would be to round up a bunch of sinners just outside the hotel and tell her that they'll all be killed unless she gives up her dream. So she has to watch her people get killed one by one, trying to justify it by saying her dream is for the greater good or something. Not fully knowing what is the right thing to do, should she just give up?

Point being, the exorcists and Adam are more "kill first, ask questions later" kind of people, meaning if a hellhound was running in a crowd of sinners, I'm pretty sure they too would be a target. In addition, them being like that is the reason they decided to attact the hotel first, Adam did seem quite ready to kill Charlie after all.

Which brings us back to our previous point, it's most likely just the rules that control the fact that sinners can't move to the other rings.

In other words, wouldn't it be more reasonable if Charlies goal was to change those rules? Maybe talk to her dad about letting people through? Like, why wouldn't she even give it a try? Is she truly so afraid of talking to her dad that she wouldn't want to try something that could solve what she considers the biggest problem in hell?

Unless, her real goal isn't to solve overpopulation, it's to find a reason for heaven to stop the exterminations and give sinners who are to the most part kind, a chance to show that they are truly deserving of heaven.

You know, good sinners, like Vaggie

[kneelingshadowsalome]

i am about to be so annoying this is going to be so long for no good reason but that's just how ted talks are ig

after all those asks about könig and the way he reacts to praise or a girl just being nice to him... i can't help but think of simon in a similar scenario, like toxic/yandere/etc simon maybe who doesn't yet have a partner but there's this new girl on their team. and his dick is hard a little bit maybe (not 100% most definitely not)

she doesn't think much of complimenting him and does it occasionally because in a way she looks up to ghost. he thinks it's annoying, he quite honestly finds most things about her annoying and especially the way she acts around soap. how they giggle chortle cackle all day long and how close they seem.

in his head, in his dirty crumbling and ill mind he justifies it like this: she seems to look up to him, someone so cold and professional yet the her behaviour around soap is the opposite of anything she claims she wants to be. so it makes sense to be this annoyed with her, right? right...

it's almost as though she is being annoying on purpose, so it's no surprise that at some point after she's in awe and all excited because of simon's kill he just. straight up barks something really angry at her. maybe to shut up and start doing something that proves that she actually deserves to be on their team if she finds simon's work so great.

ghost is somewhat able to control himself and what he says, and what he tells her out loud is sadly nowhere nearly as bad as his thoughts and what he actually wanted to tell her, but it does shut her up. finally, some peace is what he thinks to himself since she's stopped talking to johnny as much too after he said that to her.

his annoyance is replaced with something he doesn't really understand though. instead of johnny she started spending more time training with price, he doesn't think too much of it until he overhears her complimenting him. simon gets mad immediately but it's such a weird kind of anger, the type he doesn't know where to put so it just keeps growing into resentment towards her.

simon now acts like a cat that was begging to be let outside and 5 minutes later scratches the door and meows in agony because it wants back inside.

nothing he does during their training or missions or anything else gets any sort of praise from her. no matter how violent or careful he is, how fast or slow and methodical he acts - it's all nothing to her.

this is the part where !!!!! i have no idea if he would actually do something about it. in my ill mind id love a scenario where simon basically just gets drunk one day for no good reason, and the girlie just finds him miserable and shitfaced at his place. if he is drunk enough maybe he finds her on his own and basically does start acting like a cat that is begging to be let inside and get his version of head scratches (like "omg simon you're like the hottest killing machine everrrrr and your gun is soooo big <333 you're so good at this can you train me privately????")

maybe he just stays in his room and jerks off sadly while thinking about how she used to actually look up to him and how he'd love it if things just went back to normal so that he could show her his big gun or make her cum with his hands still covered in someone's blood

can't help it chief i like my men crying while they're cumming

toxic simon would be a horrendous man. one second he thinks you're annoying the next second you're gone and he's crying while holding your panties bunched up close to his chest, right where his heart is, in a "i am a widowed wife my husband just died in a war" kind of way. mf treats it like a heart locket. and all that spectacle happens because you left like he asked you to. does it matter to him? no!!! come back and kiss him right now!!!

Ooooh my god I'm gonna give you my own Ted talk of PRAISE because you had me already at the "his dick is hard a little bit maybe". The way he watches her being more casual with Johnny, how it annoys the everloving shit out of him? God... (Stupid jealous dickhead I love him) Seriously, he's appalled when she runs to Price and starts complimenting him after Ghost just told her to shut the fuck up?? And then this fucker gets mad because she doesn’t give him attention anymore???

AAAAH shut up and take my money!!

“simon now acts like a cat that was begging to be let outside and 5 minutes later scratches the door and meows in agony because it wants back inside”

PUHLEASE I need AIR

and Ghost jerking off sadly – I’m crying, I’m screaming at the very thought of this brooding dumbass fapping alone, too stubborn to swallow his pride and fix the situation.

“can’t help it chief i like my men crying while they’re cumming”

ME TOO c'moan please I just. I’m done. I sort of wanted to ask if I could add this to my request pile even if requests are closed… add some dialogue here and there and describe in detail how he’s fisting himself in various states of anger and sadness and how he sheds two (2) tears as he cums. But I don’t know because??? This is like a masterpiece already? ❤️❤️❤️ (also I can't take take more requests because of reasons 😭)

Thank you for bringing this to us; this was yet again one of those Ted talks I’m going to hit like and leave a comment that says "Brilliant. Every word was priceless wisdom. Such an inspiration."

(But I kinda did want to see him scratching at her door too while having thoughts of "Can I have a crumb of pussy please? Oh and also could you worship me like you did before, when I was your hero and your GOD >:( ?" But because he can’t voice those thoughts, he’s just gonna fuck that worship out of her because he’s stupid like that and a fool when it comes to emotions.

But then again would she be a brat and not give it to him so easily? Would she be the one who breaks him?? The smutty angst possibilities in this are endless! Please anon tell us the rest of this I’m begging you, who cries and cums first when they finally SMASH?)

[fictionkinfessions]

I'm not even saying who I am. But that ask about the ec kin I cut off.

First off. I didn't cut you off. I politely left the server because you kin Adam and while he did bad things in canon and you may not have personally, you have no idea what he did to ME personally. I said in the server that you were free to stay my friend, message me on tumblr, and continue following my blog. I left for my own comfort and safety. I did not have to extend that kindness to you. I could've left and immediately blocked you. But I didn't because I cared. I only unfollowed and blocked you after you started vague posting on main about me being there still. So I left.

Don't act like I did wrong by leaving when it's for my own comfort and safety. Like it or not, if you read the actual novels, Adam Moonlit is a justified reason for someone to leave a discord server. Not to mention, just like your canons affect you, my canons affect me. Had you not posted on your main blog vaguing me/others I would have stayed following you and perhaps we could have had a conversation later about things.

Please leave me/the others who left alone, we didn't do anything wrong by leaving a damn discord server civilly. Sending an ask like that to a public blog is really awful, especially singling people out like that and not giving full context to the situation.

-one of many ec kinnies

(sorry for sending this, I just needed to address that awful ask. I will not send anything further. )

Because of this ask, any confession vagueing irl people who are or aren't canon mates that have allegedly abandoned the confessor or cut ties or just dropped off the face of the earth are banned. I'm sorry you are hurt but this is the kind of venting that needs to go in your hello kitty diary, not a public forum.

I am sick of people not being able to take No For An Answer and drag this personal shit out into public on my blog.

One grow up and Two you're shitty person if you do this. I'm not saying abusive or manipulative, that's a specific scenario and a one off isn't necessarily a concrete habit so to speak. Also I know nothing of either of you so of course I'm not jumping to conclusions. Everyone needs a place to process their feelings and reactions. But this is not an appropriate place for it.

This is the second time and really it's embarrassing for you and ridiculous for everyone reading this blog.

OP I genuinely apologize and I'm sorry you had to be the quote unquote Learning Moment for me to put a stop to this in the first place. I'm sorry you have to explain personal shit in public like it's a really lousy version of Judge Judy Kin Edition.

Connie / mod party cat

ps if anyone is familiar with the situation, please keep it to yourself. There's enough personal stuff being aired out, nobody needs to know blog urls and IDing info. Thank you.

[golden28s]

Totally optional, fun Gallavich questions ☀️🌙

thanks for tagging me to the coolest person @callivich 💖

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once? i havent read that many gallavich fanfics since i watched the show in like april BUT im loving Africa and ill probably read it once it's finished

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog? s7 gifsets are really person to me but also maybe s10 and s11 because they reached the peak of softness

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about? maybe that ian would tell mickey "i told you so" when they become parents and mickey turns out to be an absolute incredible dad that will play, sing, dance anything with his children.

What’s a fanart you love looking at? maybe @gallavichonly @heymrspatel and i accept recommendations btw id love to see more fanart

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration? id probably write like a series of one shots based on taylor swift songs

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else? i think that not judging characters, like always be aware of their circumstances and what made them do or say that and that might not justify them but it explains their thought process, it explains why and gives them some sort of humanity to their mistakes idk if this makes sense but yeah that, don't judge a character too soon, try to understand them.

What’s an underrated trope or concept you’d like to see more of? the secret dating, we know they secretly dated and stuff but i feel like it's actually a really fun concept to play with despite their circumstances in the show, it gives you so many possibilities.

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show? the early seasons have special place in my heart, so s4-5 and i think gallavich totally saved s7, i love that part of the season

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved? i would've loved to see ian healing from the grooming and realizing it was grooming, it would've been nice for the character to heal old wounds and start fresh a new life with mickey in a new neighborhood ready to create new memories

What scene or moment do you feel isn’t discussed enough? the just wondering if we're a couple or not scene, we definitely should discuss more the fact that mickey answered too quickly, he absolutely had been calling ian boyfriend in his head

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? im gonna quote noel fisher and as he said: "Ian's been that kind of guiding angel for Mickey so he's going to have to turn into a pretty much kind of a protective angel for Ian"

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale? i think they're gonna learn to communicate even more, they were in really good path already. i think the writers didn't have much faith in them in that aspect but the conversation they have in s11 about going back or not to the new neighborhood made evident that they can communicate, they listen to each other and understand the reasons, each other's feelings. so yeah, i think they're gonna get even better at that and also they're not gonna wait that much to become parents. i think they eventually will find new jobs, ian will have his tomatoes and mickey will adore looking at him doing his thing every sunday morning. i really really think they finally found their peace, their home and are gonna be very very happy and disgustingly in love forever because they're also hopeless romantic and want that so bad.

im gonna tag a few people and as always feel free to do it or not <3 @lupeloto @mikhailoisbaby @mickeysgaymom @redwiccanrobin @lyricailove @energievie @depressedstressedlemonzest @juliakayyy

[cleromancy]

still thinking about mia!

in particular i found the deliberate and thoughtful way ga01 approached the concept of a plucky teen sidekick refreshing... because sidekicks are a staple of the genre, right, and moreover most of us *like* them, so how do we justify the "good guys" *having* them when we're also writing stuff with way more realism than the old stuff?

and to be honest i don't really need that when im reading, i can suspend my disbelief. but you have to commit to the bit when you're the one writing it, you have to believe it. and a lonely place of dying... it did ok for what it was and im extremely fond of it, but i also think it was already walking away from like... the fact that batman got robin killed, yk. it was walking away from what that meant. and like i said thats fine. if they never brought robin back i never would have gotten into comics in the first place, yknow?

but i think the exploration of some of the thorny concepts around mia sidekicking in ga is great because like. this is *emphatically* not an omelas situation. green arrow definitively does not "need" a speedy and it is also emphatically not speedys job to provide a counterbalance or whatever.

ok this got long. putting in a cut here

and both dinah and roy absolutely tear into ollie about his decision to let mia sidekick with him--and i feel like ive read a fair few kid/teen sidekick stories which have the kid wind up in danger (or whatever) regardless of the adult trying to discourage them, and the adult at that point figures if theyre going to sneak out/disobey/whathaveyou its better to do it where the adult can keep an eye on them. and there are times when this is presented like the adult literally cannot convince the child not to do those things, which. yknow. we understand how fiction works so we also know if the writer says the kiddo wont listen to any reason, that the adult just doesn't have the power over them to stop them, then thats what happened... but the implications about the power dynamic and the adults ability to set reasonable boundaries dont paint a *great* picture.

but GA doesn't do that... i would argue mia was being set up to be the 2nd speedy all the way back to dinah and roys conversation in that plane where they just learned ollie might be alive and cant stop bitching about him lol. and iirc this is within the first 6 issues. and dinah and roy are both throwing around unfair accusations at the time, but roy says smth to the effect of what do you want to bet he's already training her to replace me. and i don't think he really believed that but it obviously planted the idea in readers heads if it wasnt there already! but yknow after that, mia doesn't debut as speedy until ga 46, or thereabouts im not looking it up, several years later both IRL and in-universe (or well in-universe its almost 2 years. iirc.).

(i can't even imagine how it must have felt if youd been following that series the whole time *finally* seeing that enter speedy cover. id have been screaming my damn head off.)

anyway. i already talked about comparing and contrasting the man mia killed during her test run vs the jason and felipe situation but i also wanted to say that i think it was great that the whole conversation pretty much *opens* with that. like forget physical danger the kid might be in--what about the psychological toll? what about the choices hes putting her in the position to make?

despite ollie very much being the protagonist of the series and mia very much being a supporting character, the focus of the emotional impact is on her, and the focus of the *responsibility* is on him. (now compare and contrast batman with robin...... listen, i absolutely do not believe it wasn't set up as a deliberate contrast, ok.)

and you would naturally think that would mean she doesn't... get to be speedy. she doesn't get to be a hero. she doesn't get another chance. but then she gets her HIV+ diagnosis, and the focus for mias character turns specifically to *living* with HIV.

and i think that's what makes it clear, to me at least, that the whole... fighting crime thing is supposed to be a metaphor. at least on some level. its a power fantasy, its a metaphor, its about the *good guys winning.* heroes being heroes. and i think a lot of the discussions around representation have gotten so overblown for what they are, but--unironically--sometimes its really meaningful and important just to see yourself. and to believe that no matter what youve lived through, you can be good, you can be wanted, you can make a difference.

which is why mia gives her presentation in the auditorium about her diagnosis, and i feel like this was also a deliberate callback to roy "only you can prevent forest fires" harper and his anti-drug PSA. because roy decided, after snowbirds, he was going to go public about his addiction because he wanted to help other people going through the same thing he did, or prevent other people from going through it yk. and there are two incidents i can think of where, years down the line, he feels some regret over it because now hes just known as the heroin guy, the guy who used to do drugs. but i also don't think he would ever have chosen to do anything else. both speedys are actively choosing to bear that stigma openly in the hopes of reducing it, you know?

speaking of which! i thought it was a *fantastic* - and no doubt deliberate - contrast to how roys drug use was treated, to have mia only talk about it *once* (this is in the HIV+ issue. 45ish?) that she regularly did meth when she was on the streets, and its explicitly clear she did it to survive. and it never comes up again. there's no condemnation, there's no literal war on drugs propaganda here. (the first roy comic i ever read was the mini ntt one in the mandatory fucking D.A.R.E program in middle school, btw.) it was a fact of her life because her life was *fucking dangerous,* and meth helped keep her alive until she managed to find her way out of it!

so this is another concept mia becoming speedy explores--the fact that the people who should have kept her safe as a child did the opposite. mia has never been safe her entire life until moving in with ollie. and the people who hurt her left permanent damage in a physical way in the form of HIV. so now ga is exploring like... what it means to be safe. what it means to be mortal. what exactly is a childhood. and it doesn't dig *too* too deeply into these because its not that kind of comic book, its the kind of comic book where the good guys shoot glue arrows at bad guys and stick them to the floor. but it approaches it and sits you down with those questions and i mean, for me at least, even putting aside exactly how hype i was for mia to take on the mantle, it felt *right* that ollie would say yes.

and the next issue i think or the one after that (its the teen titans one! tim is there later). is the one where roy reams ollie out for this, they talk about it, roy lampshades the different... contexts of having a speedy. like its not like how it used to be. the bad guys are worse, its not safe enough for a kid anymore. and this is where ollie relays mias diagnosis (<- she had already decided to go public about it as i said before, so ollies not sharing information that isnt his to share here). and roys like that could have been me. its a good issue! i like what it does with what its doing.

and then some 20 issues later, once mia is reasonably well established as a superhero and a titan....... Enter Jason.

(🥰)

i have so much to say about this arc i love it so much. let me preface by saying none of this is a condemnation of jason, hes pretty much my favorite fictional character of all time. im not interested in wagging my finger at the guy styling himself as a supervillain at the time and going Naughty Jason! Thats Not How We Make Friends!, yk. im also not endorsing it, bla bla bla, whatever, this really aint about him right now. right now we're just talking about what he does for the story, the questions he poses about mia and sidekicks and shit.

god, where to fucking start.

i guess ill start with jasons "were not so different you and i" villain speech. and yknow at least on the surface level theres like. a certain join-me-be-my-robin element to it or like he's encouraging her to cross the line or whatever. but honestly, jason was less there because jason todd the fictional character wanted to be there, and more because winick as the writer thought it continued to explore the concept in an interesting way.

because we've talked about green arrows responsibility vis a vis letting her be a sidekick bc of the psychological impact of it, about the choices she's put in a position to make, about HIV and what it means to be a hero and safety. all of those things. and jason shows up to *demonstrate* that--

--it really is not fucking safe to do what they do.

and Jason is, i think, at his most terrifying here, and thats on purpose. it is *visceral*. it is so, so incredibly well done. and it throws ALL those questions of safety and responsibility and mortality and heroism and do-gooding into a new light because you really feel like, oh my god, her life is in danger.

tbh i think some of the reader anger at jason for this arc--and titans tower, just to a lesser degree because it wasnt NEARLY as good lol--is the fact that he *is* challenging us, the readers, to think about our beloved kid/teen sidekick trope. he brings back the element of realism that GA was drawing away from somewhat, the element of *real consequences.* and as a reader it is so much easier to just be mad at jason because well hes the villain of the story...... and ignore the fact that hes demonstrating--both by being the dead robin cautionary tale, and by being ~red hood, the scourge of the underworld~ lol--that if this is not something she's prepared to face, a possibility she's prepared for, then she shouldn't be wearing that uniform.

and that the person she relies on to protect her can't always be there to do it.

and, mini tangent, there's absolutely no way jason was trying to kill her here. he terrified her, he kicked her ass, but he didn't do any permanent damage and he didnt "lock her in" (<- real reading i saw once 🙄 try reading it again with your eyes next time genius) he stabbed his knife into her cape. if jason were being written by anyone else i would entertain the idea but it was winick, who knows exactly how smart and thorough jason is supposed to be *because he was the one who made him that way.* there's no doubt in my mind that jason was perched somewhere watcging to make sure she got out before the place went kablooey but you know what, in fairness, thats not on the page. BUT, like. the reason mia *thinks* jason was going to kill her--before she realizes he could have if hed wanted to, and purposely let her go--was because he wanted her to think that. he wanted to scare her and he wanted to warn her and he wanted to make her think.

really really love this arc.

anyway. i mentioned in my other post that winick tweaked mias backstory so she was also homeless like jason, which i sort of have mixed feelings about. in smiths version, her dad trafficks her and later she winds up as one of the "girlfriends" (euphemism for victims) of his associates. and that was ... not really the picture of child trafficking you usually see in comics, the more common real-life scenario rather than the sensationalized version of quote-unquote child prostitutes on street corners. but at the same time i think winick kept the most important part (the familial trafficking) and i also think he changed it in order to explore all the aforementioned topics in an interesting way. it doesn't feel like it was just an arbitrary change, or to make it more exciting or whatever. like he was exploring stuff with it, it was purposeful.

for example--going back to mia and meth. the more you read of winick the more you notice that intravenous drugs and illnesses associated with them (so including but not limited to HIV/AIDS) are something of a... recurring... motif, i guess? they're something he regularly comes back to explore. and thats interesting in the context of mia for a lot of reasons but well. when mia defensively says to ollie that she used meth, the reason she gives is they used it to stay awake on the streets. and i do think winick deliberately--and *effectively*--explored the pre-existing (and historical) parallels btwn batman and green arrow in a bunch of other ways, so i don't think im off base in saying the fact that *robin* 2.0 famously lived on the streets *probably* had something to do with the backstory tweak for speedy 2.0, particularly again bc of jasons "we're the same" villain speech. but also, like i said, she mostly used to stay awake(/alive), which is something of a harder sell if she hadn't been homeless, and also like i said, winick likes exploring drugs and wanted to write a hero living with HIV.

before i get into the comparisons with jason and mia, i also want to say that i think jason--who im constantly affectionately calling a revenant--is such an effective contrast for mia because the emphasis for mia! was always on living. it was always on healing. despite having a *distinctly* non-everykid origin story, mia absolutely embodies something i think was very characteristic of her generation of teen titans, or at the very least early days cassie and tim, which was this simultaneous like... they're normal kids, they're *relatable,* but they're also superheroic in determination, and resourcefulness, and they want this, and they know they can do it, so they will. and thats what its all about, man.

...actually i just ran out of steam, ill write out some thoughts on jason telling mia theyre the same later lol sorry. im toired!!!!

anyway mia is soooo good.

[hjemne]

Thinking about my queer telenovela Trigun WIP again, and I'm still not sure about to what extent it's a good idea to write Wolfwood as recently having left the church after coming to terms with the fact he's gay, and so has little experience with the queer community. Currently in my plan, Wolfwood starts off not really knowing anything about what it means to be trans and he is still working to unpack the homophobic Christian teachings he's internalised. He ends his years-long relationship with Milly and then meets Vash & it's his confirmation that yes okay he is definitely gay. Wolfwood doesn't know Vash is trans for a while, and Meryl is stressing out during that time because she's worried about how this recently Christian man with a limited understanding of transness might react to the guy he's been crushing on not being cis (Vash, her friend, who's been through enough already and who she wants to look out for). Meryl doesn't really know Wolfwood, and the worry is partly coming out of her habit of catastrophising, and Milly knows Wolfwood very very well and has full faith that he wouldn't be a dick about Vash being trans. But idk if I should cut these scenes because they're Too Much. For plot reasons the girls can't properly communicate with either Wolfwood or vash btw. My point is to show that Meryl is also unlearning stereotypes and her immediate assumptions about people, but I'm not sure if that justifies bringing up the fear of transphobia in a fanfic

Wolfwood finds out when he and Vash are finally about to hook up, and it takes him a moment to work through the initial surprise and confusion before going 'you're literally a man and I'm so attracted to you I think my dick might explode but also I have zero concept of what a trans man is so you might have to gimme some pointers on how this all works.' So basically there's a moment where Wolfwood is processing Vash being trans, and Vash is a little wary of him & how he'll react, but that moment almost immediately passes and then it's a case of Wolfwood being uninformed but very enthusiastic to learn.

I think it's important for me to show a character deconverting and the fact that when you deconvert you have to unlearn and relearn so many different things, but also I'm not sure whether it's a good idea for a plot point to be 'is Wolfwood going to hatecrime Vash?'.

I'd love to get some more perspectives on this. The fic setting and tone is (at the moment) fairly realistic so I don't think this would be a super weird tonal shift. In the fic the world is unfair and harsh but can be beautiful when people love and care for one another. Theres big plot points about how social and economic inequalities impact people & how people react & survive when pushed to the margins of society etc.

More things I'd like to discuss under the cut <33

Id also appreciate advice on how to write about Vash & Knives' transition. In my current plan, they were adopted by Rem and were both fairly erratic as kids bc they had trauma around something relating to Tesla (can't decide what exactly without bringing the tone massively down). Rem fully backs them when they transition (although she & knives get into a fight over him giving himself knives as his legal name) and I want to emphasise how positive the process of transitioning was for them. V+K get closer through it and knives gets a supportive group of friends which is particularly important because he's the more unstable one. But then there's tension between knives and rem because rem isn't the no 1 fan of some of his new friends (legato + elendira) and knives gets increasingly volatile as he refuses to process his trauma and his worst habits are enabled.

I think I want to say that Knives then causes an accident which kills Rem and injures Vash, but idk whether he does this deliberately, fully accidentally, or because he's experiencing a mental health crisis. Any thoughts about how to handle this would be super useful 🙏 Otherwise I might say that there was a car crash / other random accident, and that this was the tipping point because Knives can't handle being the only one to walk away without a scratch. Either way, Knives then disappears and Vash is trying to track him down and help him when Vash & Wolfwood meet in the main plot timeline.

The main plot is around Wolfwood trying to find Livio despite him having been declared dead after he ran away from their orphanage a few days after Wolfwood was kicked out and was never seen again (&so WW blames himself for Livios disappearance). WW eventually finds LR, who has been living under the name Razlo and avoided being found BC they actually ran away because their birth parent was released from prison and they FREAKED at being forced to go live with them again. LR has been forced into incredibly shit and precarious work because they have no legal identity or protection which is being taken advantage of by chapel. WW and LR bond and WW convinces and helps them to get away from chapel & get themselves un-declared dead. LR has met both Vash and Knives at various points (helped Vash w his t shot in a diner bathroom. this is also how he and Meryl met) and eventually Vash bumps back into WW, and they find Knives with LR's help, and everyone's happy. Milly and Meryl have gotten together during all this, and all 6/7(?) of them move in together because I make the rules and want them to be happy. Knives (& razlo tbh) gets the support and stability he's needed and is doing much better. Wolfwood gets to live with his bff Milly but can be out and proud. He probably proposes to Vash within the year. Vash & Wolfwood both have their brothers back and a family again. LR get official legal status again and change their last name to Razlo to separate them fully from their birth family. Milly and Meryl are the sweetest couple known to mankind and Meryl is welcomed into Milly's big Christian family. Will knives and LR get together? Haven't decided. But I think they would get on super well. And probably hook up. Also it's very important that you know that Wolfwood used to be a youth pastor in a church while with miss Melanie (who raised him in a Christian orphanage). Melanie cries when she sees LR again, and gives Wolfwood away when he and Vash get married.

[dearmahiru-archive]

even without textual evidence id love to hear your thoughts on kotoko not killing anyone directly!! i never hear 10 theories, & especially not ones that dont revolve around her beating up the prisoners. if youre comfortable, i would love to hear your thoughts on my wife ~with love

Ahh so sorry for how long it took to me to answer this ask my brain has been gone for the past few days. But you're right!  How could I pass up an opportunity to talk about Kotoko? She deserves so much more love than what she's given. Kotoko appreciators please interact I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So we already know I subscribe to this particular theory:

Since it serves as a extension of the parallels found in the prisoners. It also fits with Kotoko since she states she'd be an innocent person outside of Milgram:

Kotoko: [...]To defend and protect the weak, there’s always situations when you can't do anything else. I say again, what I did is, “facing an urgent and illegal infringement, an action taken out of necessity to protect the rights of myself and others”. You do understand what that means, right? Es: "Criminal law, the 36th paragraph, article 1. Justifiable self-defense." Kotoko: "Looks like someone has studied. So in reality, my case, if taken to the judiciary, will also be judged as justifiable defense.

(Kotoko you did nothing wrong so true so true!)

Though, I'll admit this doesn't outright confirm she didn't kill directly anyone. However, if we work back from the idea Kotoko commited an indirect murder then you start noticing a lot of weird details in her case.

— The Warehouse

First off, Kotoko didn't directly killed the warehouse guy. We know this because her actual victim died in a nearby street in Sendocho, Kyoto.

There is the possibility there's multiple murders underneath her belt but she hasn't mentioned it hereself:

Kotoko: I did kill someone. This is why I believe in the power of Milgram.

And, unlike other prisoners, Kotoko has no reason to lie about herself. She admires the prison and believe she's done nothing wrong. If she wants to become our fang then certainly she'd jump at the chance to mention all the villains she's defeated.

Which is amazing and everything but. . . if Kotoko's victim didn't die in the warehouse then why is it the climax of Harrow? It's obviously meant to be presented as her murder. Why are there so many strange details included in the warehouse scene too?

I pointed this out in a seperate post but there's three major strange details in the warehouse scene:

1). A car suddenly appears the second time Kotoko enters the warehouse.

2). Kotoko's outfit shifts midway through entering.

3.) Despite that, her cap still appears on the ground.

(I don't even think Takao, the warehouse guy, is even bleeding...! I've been told otherwise but I turned up the saturation and stared at the image like twelve different times but I think its shadow. Why is it obscure anyway??? Just make it outright!! Some of us have vision problems y'know!!)

I don't have any answers for why these details are here but it's weird. This is only time I can think of in S1 where the "real world" has muddled up details like this. (Apart from maybe Rei's change of eye colour which is more subtle than this).

Which isn't to say her victim isn't Takao. Again, it's the literal climax of the song and her wolf imagery comes out full stop while dealing with him. She's been hunting this guy down for possibly two years and he's done inexcusable harm to children.

Several news article through Harrow Flash news: A girl's dead body was found near her home, presumed to be another victim of a killing spree targeting little girls

New evidence: tire marks, same as the marks found near where the girl's corpse was abandoned. The culprit seems to have kidnapped her by car, murdered her, and dumped her body near her home

 The person who killed 10 people in two years was the spoiled son of an upper-class citizen. He ran over an elementary-school girl and she died, which may have been concealed due to his father's power

It also fits with her theme of protecting others as opposed to Mikoto's theme of protecting himself. Murdering a serial killer who's done inexcusable harm on this level can make it harder to punish her in the future. She did a very, very good thing by taking this guy down.

Her smile also matches up with the shot in Undercover where she's presumedly beating someone to death.

— The Alley way

If we're discussing a potential victim here then it's more likely to be Mikio Oshii, the man she beats up in the alley way. However, I'm not convinced of this either because it's never given full confirmation.

An article from Harrow: "Mikio Oshii, a man wanted for theft was found unconscious yesterday night and taken to the hospital, his face and stomach beaten up. Footprints of a man's sneakers were found at the site, and the police are searching for a male culprit."

(transmasc kotoko so true!! handsome boy!!)

It's possible he could've died later in the hospital—like, genuinely I believe it, there's plenty of evidence, and I don't have a direct argument against it—but for the sake of this theory I don't think this is the case.

Unless Mikio laid a hand on her prior, tracking down to corner a thief and beating him until he's unconscious wouldn't constitute as self defense. If this was the case then why not show the audience?

As for the indirect murder part, there could be a debate over whether a death caused later constitutes as murder but I don't think it'd be an interesting debate.

It's also a pretty tame murder in the context of Milgram. Kotoko "I defeat evil doers" Yuzuriha beat up an old guy, didn't even finish the job, and he died by blood loss. Not only is this the legal definition of murder (Kotoko had the intent to harm + the victim died as a result of her wounds), the literal children of Milgram have done worse. When Amane wanted to kill someone she atleast brought a steel pipe and aimed for the head!

However, this isn't to say her victim isn't Mikio. Atleast, not entirely. The alley way matches closest with the Sendoku street and beating up someone is presented as her murder. This scene is definitely important to understanding case.

—So Like, What Is Her Murder Then?

Haha... remember in my original post when I this theory was half-baked and had little evidence? I can croon all I want about how it's not Takao or Mikio but she had to killed someone, y'know? There's no other character in Milgram where you couldn't reasonably guess the victim based off of the first trial alone. I've also noted why it still could've been either of them too. This also isn't conclusive evidence she didn't directly or indirectly murder them either.

Personally, I think Kotoko's crime should be an extension of Milgram prison, similarly to Fuuta. Her judge/jury/executioner vigilante traits fts this already but I think it could go even further. I'm thinking she might've turned to a higher authority and they recieved a lethal punishment of some kind? That's kind-of just my shot in the dark through.

Kotoko's case interests me the most because of how simple is appears to be while having so many elusive elements. For instance, who're the two girls and the man with the hammer? One of the girl's could've been Kotoko herself too which makes for an incredibly interesting backstory. There's also this line in her voice trailer:

Kotoko: "From the begin I've never asked for your understanding! My actions, one by one, are bringing earth closer to peace. Useless Weaklings should just shut up and let me protect them!"

Which is strange because every voiceline happens before their time in Milgram. Who is she talking to and why does she need to defend herself while talking to them?

This conclusion is a bit of a mess but wow I'm really excited for Deep Cover. Recieving confirmation on anything is going to make me ecstatic. Inno Kotoko truther through and through I adore her.

[palant1r]

Between light and mikami, who would u say is worse

ooo interesting question! "worst" is a metric with such a wide variety of interpretations, so i'm gonna put forward a few definitions...

Least fun to hang out with at a party: Mikami, no doubt. He's the most boring person alive. Light is a charismatic person who's very good at acting personable and feigning interest in others, so I feel like he'd be a pretty fun acquaintance to have, even if he never lets anyone beneath the surface

Least fun to actually be close friends with, at least for me: Light. It would be like being friends with an incredibly sophisticated chatbot — all the right responses, but you can't get a peek at what actually makes him tick without a 400 IQ and 3 separate terminal degrees, plus years of hannibal-level psychoanalysis. But I could be friends with Mikami. I'm actually a bit of a law nerd — the kind of person who got tickets to a conference about public document requests for fun — so while we wouldn't be able to make small talk, I feel like once we got to know each other we could have some autistic ass conversations about court precedent. Also I could use a gym buddy.

Most net negative impact on the world: I mean, Light, obviously

Most pleasure taken in atrocities: Light. Mikami doesn't actually seem to take much personal pleasure in killing beyond his worship of Kira. Light, meanwhile, despite his self-justification of just wanting to make a good world, looooves to vindictively gloat over victims, even those that aren't those he thinks of as "criminals." See: L, Raye Penber, Near

Least coherent moral code: Mikami. His moral code is just like. Some religion he duct taped together out of a bunch of coincidences and terminal cop brain, plus a heavy dose of inexplicable cultural christianity despite not being culturally christian. Which makes it all the more baffling that he's apparently able to hold coherent conversations about politics. Light's own situation may be a middle schooler's first introduction to deontology and consequentalism, but at least it's something

Most aggravating moral code: Light. Man, I fucking hate the way this guy thinks about the world, because it's eerily similar to shit I see IRL. It's the idea of a moral code that exists fully to justify oneself as Good, cruelty justified through hatred of a so-called "evil," assuming that bad people are an ontological class that can be eliminated with no consequences and society will improve as a result. There are people who deadass believe this shit. I've compared Light tongue-in-cheek to Republicans in a fic before, but honestly I see it in leftist spaces all the time — just replace "criminals" with "billionaires." Hating the "bad people" and wanting them gone is such a convenient way for people to deny systemic injustice and their own role in it. And of course, as long as one defines oneself as "good," one gives themself free rein to eliminate opposition with righteous vindication. It's a mindset that's not unique to Light Yagami, he's just unique in the power he wields to enact it. It's the reason that, while as a Light Yagami Enjoyer I would never judge someone for loving Light Yagami, I tend to side-eye the side of the fandom that unironically argues Kira was right. I need to cut myself off before I go on my full anti-Kira rant...

Worst in bed: I'm not entirely confident Mikami knows what sex is.

Worst at being Kira: Light, by default — it was his own damn fault they lost, though he tried to blame Mikami. Hell, if he hadn't insisted on gloating in the warehouse, he might even have talked his way out of that situation. After all, it made sense for him to be the owner — someone in the task force had to be, and I'm pretty sure it's actually a plot hole that Mikami could see Aizawa's name. It wouldn't have convinced the SPK and Aizawa, but it would have given Ide and Mogi hesitation and Matsuda would certainly have been convinced. "But Mikami should have checked the notebook again before coming to the warehouse and it's stupid that he didn't—" HE WAS BEING CONTROLLED OK I 100% THINK MATSUDA IS RIGHT ABOUT THIS because otherwise both near and mikami's characters are assassinated in the final chapter more brutally than JFK and i do have a bit of respect for O&O as writers lmao. Mikami played his part perfectly. If he'd been the one to find the first notebook, I think he would have lasted longer than Light, simply because he wouldn't decide to do all the galaxy brain plays to get close to L.