#not really spoilers cus this is referring just as much if not more to past sessions

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

The absolute joy in every Red's voice when they hear that they successfully got someone with their task

"Did I get you did I get you did I get you?!?" (<- like a small child)

"Yeah, you got me." (<- exasperated and bemused adult voice)

"YAY!!" (<- bouncing and scampering off to claim their rewards)

[quitealotofsodapop]

The crew listens to Epic: the Musical.

MK's favorite song is Legendary.

Wukong identifies with Just a Man (not that he'll admit it).

Macaque likes Ruthlessness because he's an emo little stinker.

Sandy likes Open Arms (of course).

Tang and Red Son like Warrior of the Mind.

Pigsy really thinks the monkeys should take Luck Runs Out to heart.

Mei likes Keep Your friends close (a fun bop that belies danger underneath, just like her).

I have to be careful binging a new muscial (or in this case Saga) cus I end up playing each song on loop for hours. Opinions might change once the full and finished versions of later sagas are released.

I love all these hcs <3

Im imagining the gang likely sees/listens to Epic on the reccomendation of MK (who's currently on a Greek Mythology hyperfixation), and he gets them all to watch the full play - maybe in the future as a irl performance or film.

"Legendary" is SUCH an MK song. Both him and Telemachus growing up with the stories of someone dear to them and wanting to replicate their success. I could also see him really liking "Warrior of the Mind" with the theme of "some nobody" gaining the favor of a god (reminds you of anyone?) + SWK is infamously the personification of The Mind in Jttw so its a bonus. MK is smiling evily whenever a harsh plot twist occurs and his fam are shocked silent. >:3

Sun Wukong feels targeted personally with how many of the Epic songs remind him of his past. Ofc he starts crying halfway through "Horse and the Infant", and is inconsolable during "Just A Man" - verbally yelling "NO!" at the end. And like Nezha and Sandy is *silent* during Posideon's songs. Is super jazzed during the triumphant Ithaca Saga though! And feels mega catharic during "King" when Odysseus proves that he still rules to the suitors! He tries his best to hide how much the muscial is affecting him.

Macaque is a canon theatre Nerd - so he's already listened to the musical multiple times, but he's uber excited to see the live performance (and secretly bond with his found fam). Is rocking out during "Ruthlessness" and "Done For" in particular, so much so that he's fidgeting and dancing within his seat. He also vibes with "No Longer You" as someone with powers of prophecy. Is really amazed how much Wukong gets into the musical, but in retrospect understands *why*. Him and Wukong accidentally share a glance during "Would You Fall In Love With Me Again" and it gets a little awkward afterwards.

Mei is similarly excited to see anything with her bestie, so she tried her best not hear/see any spoilers ("it's a centuries' old story Mei" "Ssssh!! Dont tell me!"). She was shooketh by how hard the muscial goes. "Keep Your Friends Close" is her fave based on beat alone. She gets delightedly scared and amazed by consistent horse imagery used with Posideon (shameless link to my fave Animatic of "Ruthlessness").

Tang loves himself some historical and mythological adaptations, and is estatic that MK has given him an excuse to go see one! He's not as familar with Hellenic mytholgy as he is with Hindu-Chinese, but he knows enough lore to make the pog-champ face at every foreshadowing/reference. "Warrior of the Mind" really gets to him as a song about valuing your smarts. He also feels really empathetic for Calypso.

Pigsy only went cus Tang begged him. He feels super lost by the deep Greek lore he's missing, but he can get Odysseus's whole thing with trying to get home - but he def identifies more with Eurylochus. "Luck Runs Out" proves this to him. Later on he feels that the second-in-command was justified in having the soldiers rebel against Odysseus after so many losses (who wouldn't after losing all their friends?). Audibly gasps at the end of "Just A Man" - cus who would just do that!? Is a little freaked out by Circe turning the Athenian's into pigs - Eurylochus is depicted as partly-transformed, played by a pig-demon actor who was in super convincing human makeup in the previous sagas. He also gets protective feelings by-proxy seeing Telemachus's situation since the prince reminds him of MK. Is surprised by how much he likes the musical!

Sandy feels betrayed. This isn't like Disney Hercules at all! He does really enjoy Polites message in "Open Arms" and the later moments when the hopeful soldier's outlook is proven correct. He's a little overwhelmed at points though - he get eerily quiet during Posideon's scenes. He sobs joyfully when Odysseus finally makes it home and reunites with his family! :')

Because of this really good animatic/almost child-like depiction of Aelous by gigi; I can def see "Keep Your Friends Close" being Nezha's fave. It reminds Nezha of when he was far more carefree + has a solid lesson on about trust/"forbidden fruit". He also enjoys the more march-like tune of "Survive". He does however, freeze when he listens to Posideon's songs "Ruthlessness" and "Get in the Water" - he has been on the bad end of a sea god before and is quietly shtting himself for Odysseus.

Red Son goes in feeling like he could have stayed at home listening to the musical on his phone while working on a car instead. He is however blown away by the heavy themes and performances, especially "Warrior of the Mind" and Telemachus's situation - a prince forced to grow up fatherless and protecting his mother from suitors due to his dad pissing off a higher power? Hello?? Accidentally shrieks "YES!!!" when Athena becomes Telemachus's mentor/friend after "Little Wolf".

Princess Iron Fan I could see loving any song including Penelope (she empathizes with the Queen's situation hard), but unexpectedly enjoys "Keep Your Friends Close" - she's a fellow Wind Goddess at her core. It also reminds her of her not-so-little-anymore nephew.

DBK on the flip side loves the heavier songs like "Polyphemus" and "Ruthlessness". This man is a Posedion apologist. He does feels bad for Odysseus by the end though - man just wants to get back to his wife and kid dammit!

Bonus: The Spider Gang are watching the bootleg and Spider Queen agrees with Circe's whole girlboss attitude especially "Puppeteer". Scorpion Queen is Calypso in "Not Sorry For Loving You".

This got a little away from me - hope you enjoy!

[madillhethen]

The thing I really love about Yu Mei-Ren is that no one expects her to be any foil/parallel to Archer/Shirou because it’s just not obvious. She’s not made to be the obvious foil like Gilgamesh to Emiya, or the half foil/parallel of Cu to Archer, or even the obvious reminiscence that Saber is to Archer. People think Yu Mei-Ren is just a True Ancestor so in love with her husband and that’s her motivation, and no one would connect that to Archer/Shirou because there’s no direct conflict to pit the other against another.

But this Chaldea’s Thriller Night lays it out pretty well that she does contain something you can relate to Archer/Shirou. Not only do both Emiya and her take a well-deserve center stage in this event but Emiya also shows up in her interlude. Before I thought it was a bit random of why any character he should show up in her interlude.

It got me thinking after she says this in the event.

In UBW, Shirou confronts is ideals/dream head on and despite the path it led Archer down, he decides he was going to go down it all the same. Stardust is a theme that is pretty much associated with Archer. He’s not the starlight that Saber is, the star that Shirou hopes to become, he’s the aftermath of what the ideal truly is, destroyed and broken—he’s stardust.

Yu Mei-Ren refers to herself as stardust because she is no longer how she used to be—an elemental spirit in love who lost her husband and wandered for thousands of years, wishing for death and lamenting. She’s only gotten back what she’s lost, and even as the stardust, she presses on which at the end of UBW Archer does too after having his Hope renewed.

The foil/parallel I see it as that she is an elemental spirit who wished nothing to do with humanity and Archer a man who wanted to save humanity, both fought for some survival of themselves and eventually lost the things they wanted to keep (his ideal; her husband). Both trapped in an endless cycle of pain, him constantly killing as a CG and her constantly being killed and hunted by humanity.

On a slightly different note, throughout the event despite numerous warnings, Yu Mei-Ren keeps dying which is more comical in the event, and because she’s immortal, it gets brushed off. In a similar light, Shirou is constantly wounded nearly mortally many times throughout each routes, but thanks to Saber’s sheath, he comes back as if nothing happens. During the Zombie Movie Segmant, Yu Mei-Ren risks her life to save the others and willingly let’s herself die (only to come back in a comedic way later) but her resolve reminded me of how Shirou fully accepts Archer’s Arm in Heaven’s Feel and decides to face Heracles (a mindless servant at that point like the zombies).

Towards the end of the event, Xu Fu wants to give Yu Mei-Ren death, what she wanted so long ago because that’s the way to end her suffering. But Yu Mei-Ren refuses, and accepts the fact her path may very well end up suffering again and she may go on, angry at her past self (sounds familiar? Archer is literally that.)

Regardless of it, Yu Mei-Ren decides the path she has now, the happiness she has found, is worth it. Like Shirou decided that his dream isn’t wrong, he would continue down that path.

Of course, there’s a segment where she is fighting her doppelgänger but gives up, and makes a reference to UBW of Archer’s own conflict to Shirou, which Archer is visibly pained by.

Even if her choices to not die will come to haunt her later, she accepts that her choice now and before (this event tries not to spoiler LB3 but you can connect the dots) to be reunited with her husband are not wrong.

Which I really loved this event for touching upon these subjects, and having Emiya being such a delight during it all. His story was already told but he gets to still be a guiding figure in an event that reminiscences his own arc.

[octaviasdread]

any girls! dark academia movie recs? i really struggle to find anything not about a group of boys (as much as I love them)

SO MANY!!! This is probably a far more detailed answer than you were expecting but this is a popular question and I want to keep a list for myself and others.

Feel free to add to it/give opinions. I've tried to give a tw for anything I can remember

Girls! Dark Academia Movies/TV Shows

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

1950s Women’s college

Art professor! Julia Roberts

She’s legit the female Mr Keating of the art & college world

Feminism vs. Tradition

Maggie Gyllenhall x Ginnifer Goodwin; their characters were more than friends. Fight me.

Does not end how you expect

Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird (1998)

MY FAVOURITE!!!

Free on YouTube under one of its various names

Comedy

1960s all girls boarding school

Young Kirsten Dunst

Group of girls plot to sabotage a merger with a boys school less prestigious than their own

Secret attic clubhouse meetings of the D.A.R aka Daughters of the American Ravioli (eaten cold, ew)

girls get political & advocate for their rights using ANY elaborate and chaotic scheme

TW: eating disorder, vomiting & creepy male teacher but the girls plot against him too

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

based on a short book I read for uni by Muriel Spark

1930s girls school in Edinburgh

Scottish teacher! Maggie Smith, controversial with a focus on romantic ideals

Spoiler alert, the liberal teacher is actually a fascist

Her group of fave students has cult- vibes and it’s fascinating

Picnic at Hanging Rock

1970s movie or 2018 mini series

Never watched either but I plan to

Wild Child (2008)

00s romcom every UK teen girl loves

Emma Roberts as the spoiled rich American teenager sent to a strict English boarding school

Plots to get herself expelled but oh no she’s making friends with the girls who help her

And the headmistress has a hot son, and he’s nice??? Double oh no

ICONIC SCENES

Everything! Goes! Wrong!

omg she burns the school down

Feel good, comfort, nostalgia

St Trinians (2007)

English girls boarding school

The kids are all criminals, no joke

So are the teachers

CHAOTIC

gay awakening for british girls

Art heist pulled off by school girls

Government tries to shut them down but oh no, the education minister & the headmistress are ex-lovers

Colin Firth x Rupert Everett in drag

Superior cast: Jodie Whittaker, Gemma Arterton, Juno Temple, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, etc...

embodies the phrase 'problematic fave'

St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009)

Mystery, pirate ancestors, hidden treasure

omg Shakespeare was a woman

girls disguised as boys to infiltrate and rob the posh boys school

Villain! David Tennant in that ICONIC boat scene

Teen girls vs. ancient misogynist brotherhood

like the first film but MORE chaotic and BETTER!???

The Falling (2014)

1960s all girls school

best friends! but its unrequited love

Agoraphobic + distant mother aka mommy issues

Sudden death and the school suppresses/ignores the students grief, sparking mass hysteria & a fainting epidemic in the girls

Cast: Maisie Williams (GoT) & Florence Pugh (Little Women) & Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders)

TW: teen pregnancy, death, vomiting, underage s*x, sibling inc*st, past s*xual assault

READ THE PLOT SUMMARY FIRST

The Book Thief (2013)

Based on an amazing book by Markus Zusak

set in 1940s Nazi Germany

Daughter of a communist whose family were taken by the Nazis/died is fostered by an older couple who teach her to read & she paints a dictionary on the basement walls

Coming of age story about a compulsive book thief. No joke, this kid steals books from banned book burnings and breaks into the mayor's library through the window

Family hides the Jewish son of an old friend in their basement and he helps her to start writing about her experiences in the war

TW: death, bombings, WW2 anti-semitism

Mary Shelley (2017)

Overall good & roughly biographical

Pretty costumes and aesthetic

Modern feminist take on Mary Shelly in her own time period

So many INACCURACIES for the drama so don’t take it as truth

Percy Shelley slander and not all of it is justified

Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, and Maisie Williams

The Secret Garden (1993)

Based on a fave childhood book

1901 colonial India & Yorkshire, England

Orphaned, spoilt & neglected girl sent to live with her reclusive Uncle in the English countryside

Gothic elements, mysteries, secret doors/passages/locked gardens

local boy with a flock of animals, magic, kids chanting around a fire and all around immaculate vibes

Happy ending!!!

Hidden Figures (2016)

African-American women as mathematicians for NASA

1960s space project

Women balancing a career and family obligations

Deals with racial & gender discrimination

Loosely based on the lives of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who worked for NASA as engineers & mathematicians

Anne of Green Gables (1985) & sequel (1987)

Adaptation L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

Canada (late 1890s/early 1900s)

Highly imaginative & bookworm orphan is adopted by a reclusive elderly brother and sister duo

Small town & school years comedic drama

Unrequited Enemies -> Friends -> lovers

Inspiring new woman teacher

Girls re-enact Tennyson’s poem and nearly drown for the aesthetic™

Dramatic poetry reading with INTENSE 👀eye contact👀

Writer! Anne & English teacher! Anne dealing with unruly girls school antics

Collette (2018)

biographical drama on french writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette

Victorian & Edwardian era France

More talented than her husband so she ghostwrites for him

Fight for creative ownership of her wildly successful novels

Affairs with a woman called Georgie and also with Missy, born female but masculine presenting

Cast: Keira Knightly, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark)

Enola Holmes (2020)

Netflix book adaptation

Younger sister of Sherlock Holmes

Victorian era! feminism/suffragettes

Mother-daughter focus

Mystery, adventure, secret codes, teens running away & escaping from (and eventually fighting) assassins

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Fiona Shaw, Millie Bobby Brown

Ginger & Rosa (2012)

1960s England

best friends since literal birth navigating troubled teen years

poet & anti-nuclear activist! Ginger

off the rails but also catholic! Rosa

Shout out to Mark & Mark the gay godfathers we all want

family troubles 

TW: older man has an affair with a 17 yr old

Testament of Youth (2014)

based on WW1 memoir by Vera Brittain

young woman (writer & poetry lover) escapes traditional family & goes to study at Oxford University

abandons to become a war nurse

romance, tragedy and war trauma

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington (GoT), Taron Edgerton (Rocketman), Colin Morgan (Merlin)

Little Women (2019)

Writer! Jo & Artist! Amy

Mother/daughter focus and sister dynamics

the March sisters’ theatre club is *chefs kiss*

champagne problems edits of Jo x Laurie are a mood

Ambivalent ending perfectly captures Louisa May Alcott’s dilemma with the book the movie is based on

set in 1860s America

ALL STAR CAST and a Greta Gerwig masterpeice

Lady Bird (2017)

coming of age in early 2002/2003 Sacramento, California

all girls catholic school

writer! Christine aka Lady Bird wants to get outta town and start her life again at college 'in a city with culture'

Mother/daughter dynamics - so realistic!

I live for that Jesus car stunt & the nun's reaction

school theatre program

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein

Another Greta Gerwig gem

Beguiled (2017)

Virginia, civil war era

Girls school with only five students and two teachers left

Find an injured Union army soldier & bring him inside

Women & teenagers want his attention (v. problematic) before uniting against him

(tbh you'll either love it, hate it, or watch once & forget it)

Sofia Coppola film so its very feminine gaze

TW: violence, death, underage

Legally Blonde (2001)

No questions will be taken

Elle Woods was the blue print

TV series:

House of Anubis (2011-2013)

I know it’s a kids/young teen show but I still unironically love it

ANCIENT EGYPT!!!!

Modern day with Victorian era links to treasure hunters & Egyptian research expeditions (stealing from tombs)

Chosen one plot lines, curses, kidnapping, mysteries, secret tunnels under the school, elixir of life

Teens have investigate & protect themselves cus oh no the TEACHERS are involved in some shady stuff

new American kid at British boarding school is the actual premise not just a fanfic au

Nostalgic, light-hearted, funny, and kinda cheesy but I will accept no criticism

The Alienist (2018 -now)

Mid 1890s, New York

Woman’s private detective agency (Season 2)

Serial killer mystery

Woman secretary turns detective and teams up with a criminal psychiatrist and a newspaper editor to solve crime

TW: violence, child pr*stit*tion

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Daniel Bruhl

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Woman chess prodigy

1950s & 1960s

TW: drug & alcohol abuse

Gentleman Jack (2019 - now)

Based on the diaries of Anne Lister

Victorian Yorkshire, England

Upper-class lesbians

Confident, suit wearing! Anne Lister x shy! Ann Walker

Business woman! Anne running the family mines

Cast: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) & Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders)

TW: violence

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

bubbly/ambitious single mom + intelligent daughter

bookworm! Rory Gilmore gets into a prestigious private school and then an Ivy League college

Small town drama is comedic gold

Fast dialogue packed with pop culture and literary references

Comforting & nostalgic

TEAM JESS

Anne with an E (2017-2019)

Loose adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

they completely change the plot lines but it’s still very good content!

Orphan girl with trauma and a love of books/poetry is adopted by an elderly brother & sister duo, bringing light and fresh ideas to a rural community

Feminism, girls writing club, lgbtq safe spaces, girls eduction, black/indigenous representation

Miss Stacy as THAT inspiring teacher

Aunt Josephine’s lavish gay parties have my heart

TW: creepy male teacher tries to marry a student, racial discrimination, indigenous assimilation school

Victoria (2016-2019)

Adaption of Queen Victoria’s life

Victoria navigating her political, royal, and personal life

Albert’s involvement with The Great Exhibition, 1851 (on cultural + industrial innovations)

Alfred Paget x Edward Drummond is exquisite

Gorgeous costumes and aesthetics

TW: bury your gays trope

Derry Girls (2018-now)

1990s Northern Ireland during the troubles

Comedy, episodes 20-25 mins long

English boy sent to an all girls Catholic school with his cousin

✨Dead Poets Society parody episode ✨with a free-spirited female teacher

Sister Michael, the sarcastic nun who hates her job & reads the exorcist for giggles

Wee anxious lesbian! Clare Devlin (plus her friends wearing rainbow pins)

Badass with bad ideas! Michelle Mallon

Main Character! Erin Quinn

Lovable weirdo who would fight a polar bear! Orla McCool

Wee English fella & honorary Derry girl! James Maguire

Dickinson (2019-now)

Loose adaption of the poet Emily Dickinson’s life

Set in 19th century Massachusetts, US

Historical drama with modern dialogue & music that works SEAMLESSLY

gives a great understanding of Emily Dickinson’s poems

💕Vintage gays! Emily x Sue💕

Theatre club, writing, poetry, dressing as men to sneak into lectures, love letters, teen drama, feminism, and an underground abolitionist journal as a brief side plot in season 2

Wiz Khalifa plays death in a horse drawn carriage

TW: opium use

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Based on great childhood books

Bookworm! brother, Inventor! sister, and baby sister with sharp teeth

Mystery, secret organisations, orphaned siblings figuring things out & fending for themselves against the villain after their fortune

Adults either cartoon evil, comedically incompetent, or SPIES

Boarding school, library owner, scientific researcher, and theatre episodes

Ambiguous time period which is really fun to try and pin point

Killing Eve (2018-now)

Classic detective who has homoerotic tension with the assassin she is tracking down

British Detective! Eve Polastri figures out the notorious assassin MI5 are investigating is a woman, is fired & then put on a secret MI6 case with a small team

Assassin! Villanelle, a psychopath with a tragic past and a mastery of both accents & fashion

Woman MI6 boss! Carolyn Martens, head of Russian section

Travel Europe following Villanelle’s killings and escaping the assassins sent by Villanelle’s organisation

‘You’re supposed to be my enemy and moral opposite but omg you’re the only one smart enough to get me and why am I obsessed with you????'

🚨 GO IN FOR A KISS AND THEN STAB YOUR ENEMY 🚨

Cable Girls/Las chicas del cable (2017-2020)

Spanish drama set in 1920s Madrid

Four young women at a telecommunications company form a group of friends and help navigate the difficult situations they are all in

Secret identities, dangerous pasts, murder, crime, lgbtq couple & throuple, trans man character, feminism/suffragists

girls commit crimes for humanitarian reasons and cover! it! up!

UNDERRATED SHOW!!!!

Gorgeous costumes and set

Haven’t finished it yet and I’m catching up

TW: abuse, violence, death

Outlander (2014 - now)

haven’t watched yet but plan to

Woman time travels to Scotland, 1743

Rebel highlanders, pirates, British colonies, American revolutionary war

Time jumps between 18th & 20th century

[choco-court]

Okay i said i was gonna continue talking about the Sheikah Automaton au in this post so here goes-

Real quick thing for reference tho; ten thousand years is a Long Time, it’s around how far back our own records of human civilization as a whole goes, and 10k years in the past being when the botw era was at it’s technological peak means loz is Super Fucking Old But Lunav! You’re saying, we already know the loz universe is ancient! Why are you reminding us? Well because this whole paragraph is just me outlining my excuse for doing whatever i want with the aesthetics and details of the 10k setting.

So with that preamble out of the way, here’s my actual thoughts on this au:

First thing’s first, to play into the ancient civilization look i’m gonna include ancient greek aesthetics, clothing, architecture, words when i trust i have the right definition and so on (which will make for some interesting looks when combining ancient greek stuff with stereotypical medieval things)

And because i’m very proud of these, here’s the names for the 10k royal family: Queen Zelda Hythena* Hyrule, King/Prince-consort* Bosphemus Hyrule and Princess Zelda Agape* Hyrule *Hythena to sound like Athena, greek goddess of wisdom. *I can’t decide between king or prince-consort so i put both. *Agape is the greek word for love of everyone, the exact virtue you’d want your future queen daughter to have.

And now onto the actual subject of this au: Link is a guard for thirteen year old Zelda commissioned by the royal family, originally they were just going to give her a normal hylian guard but Zelda insisted.

-and the king and queen also saw an opportunity to test the limits of the Sheikah’s skill, but not in a ‘see if they’re worthy’ way, more like a ‘keep an eye on this concerningly powerful group’ way.

Side note; Link is purposely designed to be very short as to not intimidate thirteen year old four foot something Zelda, but this ends up just being comical cus she inherits Hythena’s Tall GenesTM when she hits her growth spurt

When Zelda first ‘got’ Link she was so consistently unnerved by his blank mannequin look that she started dressing him up in her most over-sized clothes, eventually the servants took pity and just started putting him in clothes that actually fit, Zelda was ecstatic and even managed to weasel her way into getting him a wig and hat to complete the look

Before this Link didn’t really have a name, sometimes people called him ‘the little guard’ or ‘the little one’s guard’ or something like that, but the name Link caught on and stuck once he had the getup

I just realized i haven’t mentioned how Link works mentally At All so i’ll fix that

At first he is just a machine, about on par with the Guardians but with more personalized functions (Ex. Follow Zelda’s commands unless they include X, follow the king and queen’s commands no matter what, bow to these people, and so on) but his programming also included problem solving and self teaching functions so they wouldn’t have to send him back every time he bumped into a a situation he didn’t have a protocol for.

-And so this mixed with Zelda’s habit of thinking aloud to make for Link developing increasingly complex conversational skills as to follow what she was saying and make sure she wasn’t planning anything dangerous and if so how to redirect her without upsetting her too much

(Small side note: Ancient Sheikah tech pretty much had it’s own version of binary like from star wars, Link can only speak in this but understands hylian fluently)

And of course more conversation skills = understanding the concepts being talked about, which dominoed directly into sentience after awhile

okay it feels abrupt to end here and i do have more things to talk about, but they’d be spoilers and i want to see if this goes anywhere before i show my hand

[rurifangirl]

✨ ^ ^ ✨

🔮🧤(・ω・)🧤🔮

‼️Fill out this if you want to be tagged in any of my content‼️

I'm also on everskies and instagram rn with the same name as my tumblr <3

{🪻Basic info🪻}

So heya! You can call me Ruru/Creep or whatever you like, I don't really mind as long as It ain't offensive n stuff.

Remember that I'm a minor, so I won't interact w anything adult related, nor do I want to be in those. Ty

And to add on that, although it's true that I'm sex indifferent, that doesn't mean I want to be thrown nsfw at. Please respect my boundaries.

I use any pronouns [I do have a preference for He/Him] (+Any Neo) like my bio said.

I like art/to draw in general as it helped me going through stuff, n I'm here to mostly vibe, but if ya need anything from me (Whether it's talking/taggin triggers n stuff cuz I forget to do It) feel hella free to invade my in box bout It.

{🥀Socials I'm on🥀}

Discord: Ruru#9210

Reddit: CreepOwO

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Kayn's side blog: @kaynsmoon

Neptune's side blog: @octussy

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Other oc blog stuff: @tf-ya-doing-here

{🪻Fandoms I'm actively in/will probably post about more than once tbh🪻}

Dark souls (1-3)

Elden ring

Bloodborne

Fear and hunger (+ Termina)

Hades and Hades 2

League of legends

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva boss

Dmc 3

Jjba

Beastars

Dragon Raja

Devilman (Crybaby/original)

Junji Ito

Monster High

The vampire dies in no time

(once i get the fckin Money blasphemous and blasphemous 2)

(ALSO HOLLOW KNIGHT GOD DAMN IT)

OUTDATED OC POSTS ON (I DONT HAVE THE HEART TO DELETE THEM)

Own Ruri essay. (old; doesn't count)

The big lore post (How the gang met/Where do they live/how are they affected by their past).

Qiran's and Shou's relationship.

The magic post.

World building in Avril Quinn n Bones story.

The Reeders and Kingdoms.

Basic plot stuff.

Nothing yet...

Syndra (Kamisama kiss)

{ tag info 🪻}

Anything about my ocs/mcs Is tagged in their relative tags, for example my Kayn stuff will be tagged in #kayn and so on (Basically putting an # w their name on).

Finnaly adding a tag whenever I speak bout random stuff, that bein #rurutalks so it's easier for ppl to flirt It out.

All posts bout a specific fandom will be tagged w that name so no worries .

Gonna be adding #ruruasks for any ask I recive from now on.

(I'm also gonna put #rurusocs in case I'm talking bout ocs/my ocs related posts.) This Is unfortunately vry old and for vry few posts so . When the time comes and i rework everybody u will get a new tag

Requests will be also tagged as #rurusrequests.

All of my dog's posts will be tagged w #🤍balto🤍 cuz he deserves It.

All my posts bout me talkin in italian/italy related post will be tagged as #rurubutitalian

All of my posts bout shows/animes/videogames and everything's that Is spoilerish Is gonna be tagged as #spoiler cus I just realized how many posts are like that. So id suggest to filter that

All my ruri posts will also be tagged as #🤍Ruri my beloved🤍 because I'm too attached to this bitch so much and now I'm gettin y'all sucked up w It.

Cus @a-chaotic-dumbass is sendin cursed shoes pics and sayin "this shou?😍" I decided to make a new tag called #Shou's asks cus this shit Is so funny

Status : Closed! (Number of requests currently not done: 0) (0 slots open)

{🪻Drawing request🪻}

(Outdated, dm me for any questions!)

🪻Info🪻

Will draw:

Ocs/Mcs (with a reference ofc)

Any fandom (even if I don't know It) as long as I get the vibes from it

Little bit of Blood/gore ( If asked for; in any case ya can dm me)

Ship art (Unless it's p*do)

Some animals actually, even if It'll take much longer for them.

What I WON'T draw

Furries/ complicated animals

Backgrounds that are too complicated

NSFW/BDSM (I'm a minor and It makes me uncomfortable so)

Mechas

{🥀Rules bout it🥀}

I'll take my time w em, so please don't come for them, I never know lmao. For asking for em ya just got to go either dm me for It or ask in my inbox w references for It(Pose; character and general idea y'know)

That's all for now, It'll be updated if anything changed though 🤍

I'm adding at the end my discord simpery apology video cuz shit Is funny alright

[acloudkat]

Gossip Girl 2.0

So. . . I was unsure of whether I was going to talk about this or not but… in the end, here we are!

I shall be talking about the Gossip Girl Reboot.

Now quick disclaimer and mild *excuse you* to HBO, please find ways to make your content accessible to Europe because there are those of us that are interested and unfortunately your "Max" service is US only and honestly i see no reasonable logic behind it. Therefore my means of getting access to this content shall not be discussed.

Extra disclaimer, there will be spoilers. Doi.

Now I am a big die hard fan of the original GG series and despite the outdated (to today’s standards) comparisons and slang, some of the topics hold up even today. For anyone curious or questioning my opinion, based on my generation, I am mildly in the middle as a Zelenial at 23. I did not grow up with GG, I learned about it when I was 14 but watched it for the first time when I was 19. Since, I have watched it up to 14-17 times; more than 10 for sure. So you can do with that as you please. The main reason I mention this is due to some articles and comments pointing out that maybe it’s a “Gen Z only media” or that “Millennials are just bitter cause it’s not theirs”. Keeping that in mind I will be as per usual showing the ups and downs of the show (so far and later on) from my own personal perspective.

After watching ep 1. (& now 2 which will be in a separate post after this) I have a few questions, comments AND concerns. So let’s get into those shall we :)

So let's do a little round up of our characters.

We have newcomer Zoya Lott that is moving to NYC on a Constance scholarship! But little did anyone in the show know, it was all a plot to get to be with her *half sister*. WHAT?! So the tldl on that is that Zoya and our other main character, Julien Calloway, share a mom! Mom, that i quote "left Julien's dad for Zoya's dad and the dads hate each other" because of which hate, they had absolutely forbidden their daughters from communicating. One thing led to another, a friend request was sent and this is basically the parent trap. . . . but for the kids. . .and they're aware of it cause they made it. . . I suppose? The parents haven't really been mentioned to matter in their plan, however, they do keep bringing up their middle names as "Zoya Jane and Julien Elizabeth" as clues left by their mother? Now some rumours around the web have connected the names to the Pride and Prejudice novels and while that would be extremely Gossip Girl-esque to do, and I am entirely up for that, hell yea!!! I'm wondering if it's as simple as... their mother's name was Elizabeth Jane... but maybe GG will be the one to discover that secret first? Other than that, Zoya is very much a very trusting "innocent type" character that probably has more past than we know about so it will be quite interesting to see how that elaborates going further into the series.

Then there is self-made influencer Julien Calloway. She is the new version of queen at Constance but as stated, they "don't do the patriarchy anymore". While she appears all smiles and kindness, personally i feel as if JC is kind of fake? She has things she cares about yes, but the moment someone or something interferes with her followers and her social standing or Obie (more on him later)

"the gloves come off and the claws come out" - Serena Van der Woodsen

When it comes to Julien I am honestly more curious to see who she is once you take away the followers and the media. Will she be an actual person or just a shallow obsessed spoiled brat? I just hope it won't be the typical story of "have to be perfect and have to have everyone like me because my mom left" ie. has mommy issues. That is how that cliche goes after all. So I am greatly hoping that's not going to be it for this one.

Obie Bergmann! We get introduced to Obie as Julien's boyfriend. Throughout ep 1, the things we learn about Obie are that he is basically the richest in the group, and lives in Dumbo. (irony from original GG for anyone that can guess it). He appears like a super nice and kind dude, a supportive boyfriend, kind of bland and tired of the relationship but the main thing that bothers me about him so far is his impossible to ignore "white guilt syndrome". For anyone unaware, "white guilt" is "remorse or shame felt by a white person with respect to racial inequality and injustice". While it's not a bad thing trying to make up for the in-equality in the world, here's hoping that's not his entire character cus that would get old quick.

Then we have the bestie, Audrey Hope. Audrey. . . is cold but to the point. Very analysing and observing. Definitely the type of character that would take all the info first and decide what to do after. I both like and am confused by her? Her cold mannerisms are quite enjoyable among the masses of drama and emotion I won't lie. However, i do predict a juicy threesome between her, boyfriend Aki and one Max Wolfe. Honestly, I am highly interested in how their relationship evolves.

Aki Menzies is kind of a mystery as of the moment. As to be expected with just 1 episode, we won't know too much about all the characters. He is the very supportive boyfriend that tries to keep the peace between everyone.

Max Wolfe on the other hand appears like the much more flamboyant version of Chuck Bass, if Chuck Bass had a supportive family environment and no limits on who he's dating. That's more or less for him but kuddos for his 0 hesitation to basically have a pic of his dick sent to everyone. I will never not find that hilarious. But again, between these three is my prediction for some juicy interactions. Cause to be fully honest, the chemistry is undeniable.

Monet de Haan. Ah. She is honestly the savage that we need around here. She is the control and the power behind Julien's brand honestly. I am curious how come she helps Julien with her brand rather than have her own? If we go off anything said in the episode, she is more feared than adored so maybe that's why? But Monet honey, fear can also have a following, just . . a different one.

And then there's Luna La, "The stylist" while we don't know much about her, some of her one liners are actively giving me life. Her and Monet are definitely a package deal and i wonder if there is juicier gossip there that we don't know yet.

Lastly, we have our new Gossip Girl. Young teacher, Kate Keller. I won't lie, i did not see us knowing who GG is from the get go. I am however wondering whether this will drag her down to the level of highschoolers (besides the fact that she looks younger than some of them xD) Something that is bothering me in the reboot however, is that technically, characters that represent adults, spying on minors??? Like they even make the point that "i shouldn't have these, i should be in jail" in regards to having almost naked pictures of the kids. Like it's not really okay??? In the original yea no one knew who GG was but they always knew it was someone their age. The teachers didn't care at those times. But they do now and I am not fully sure how okay it is.

And of course, the extras like some of the other teachers behind GG and the parents. We however, don't know too much about them as of now so we shall see soon. If any new characters are introduced they will be addressed but for now, onto the episode!

The half sisters plot is definitely interesting so I would love to know where the whole middle names thing will go. The story line I'm most interested in at the moment however is between Audrey, Max and Aki. I want to see that unwind into something horrendous but then beautiful! It has so much potential in my opinion. In terms of character development however i want to see who Julien is without all of her fame and followers. When the focus is not the media and the attention. I want to see that Julien.

The first episode definitely introduced us to a lot of things at once so far that is my take on them. I'm sure that in the future both the teachers and parents will be a bigger part but one thing is abundantly clear. Unlike the OGGG, there won't be more than maybe 2-3 seasons depending on the ages of the students. The teachers won't follow them onto college will they? Or will things drastically change along the way? It was rather amusing seeing them talk about all the old characters however, and reference the OG Gossip Girl. I am vaguely offended that they categorised twitter as "a glorified chatroom for memes for people over 30". Like dude. . . that hit me hard. I am happy that FB was never even mentioned as existing tho! Cause let's be honest that is not the "hip" thing anymore. But the rules they put down at the party definitely made my head spin. Had to listen to them twice to even get what was happening.

But that's probably enough of me babbling on about this xD If you want to find this on an apparently dying type of media, here's my blog post about it as well lol: https://acloudkat.wordpress.com/?p=960

[idnek83]

Aid - Chapter 5/13

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Soda Kazuichi/Tanaka Gundham

Tags: Alternate Universe - Island Mode, No Game Spoilers, Masturbation,  Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Semi-Public Sex, Grinding, Wet Dreams, Anal Fingering,  Friends With Benefits,  Getting Together, Internalized Homophobia, Anal Sex

Summary: Everyone is hot and half naked because of their beach vacation. Soda is horny and tries to do something about it. Gundham tries to help and does. It all gets a little out of hand.

Chapter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Read on Ao3

This Chapter: Soda tries incredibly hard to ignore everything his heart is telling him by listening to his dick instead. Soda has a dream and goes shopping, Gundham makes him eat breakfast.

_____________________

Soda felt like his chest was going to burst. He felt like he was going to throw-up.

He unclasped his hand from Gundham’s.

“H-hey, we should probably clean up and head back.” He couldn’t look at him. He pulled up his shorts and stood.

He picked up the bowl. His heart wouldn’t stop hammering.

He stood frozen there, holding the bowl and taking deep unsteady breaths.

A hand on his shoulder. He flinched.

“Kazuichi?” Gundham sounded concerned. Genuinely concerned.

About him.

“I’m good dude. Let’s just… go back.” Shit, he was being rude. He looked up at Gundham and forced a smile “I mean, you’ve been up since yesterday right? Don’t wanna push you…”

Gundham smiled softly. Soda felt happy. Soda felt disgusted.

“I slumbered while you were at the beach with our companions.” Gundham took a step towards him. “I have more than enough energy for the rest of the night.” A hand on his hip. Soda looked away. “You, however, seem somewhat… drained. Let us retire then.”

Soda watched as Gundham retrieved his towel. He wanted to hold him. He wanted to be held.

They returned to the hotel grounds.

Soda wanted to be alone.

When he turned to goodbye to Gundham, he found him, once again, standing so, so close.

Gundham raised a hand to his face and stroked his cheek. “Sleep well, my paramour.” He lifted Soda’s hand and kissed his knuckles once more.

Gundham smiled softly and left.

Soda didn’t want to be alone.

He closed the door behind him as he walked into his cabin and slid to the ground.

He lifted his hand to his mouth as he thought of Gundham’s. His lips so soft and gentle on his knuckles, warm and tender on his neck, sly and teasing on his chest, and wet and hot on his cock.

He was getting turned on again.

Soda sighed and dragged himself to bed.

He fell into a fitful sleep wondering what those lips would feel like on his own.

–

He felt like he was floating. His body was hot, and he was so god damned turned on.

Gundham’s hands were hot on his hips, pulling him close and holding him still. Soda thought he was whispering something into his ear, but he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t hear over his own cries of Gundham’s name.

Soda could feel Gundham’s body sliding against his own as he thrust into him.

He didn’t know what it felt like. It felt amazing. He checked the window of the beach house to make sure no one was watching.

Gundham was kissing his neck the way he had been on the beach, biting now and then and making Soda gasp. His thrusts were slow and shallow, hardly pulling his hips away from Sodas ass before pressing them flush again.

Soda might have been crying, he didn’t really know. His chest felt tight. He wanted to kiss Gundham.

Gundham’s lips were soft, gentle. Loving.

Soda wasn’t sure if he wanted that.

The lips on his were hot, and soon they were joined by an equally hot tongue.

The sand was cold.

Gundham fucked into him faster and bit his lip. Soda felt amazing. Soda felt guilty. He let the guilt be washed away by Gundham relentlessly pounding into him.

He knew he was crying. He felt so good. He felt awful.

“Don’t stop! Don’t leave!”

Gundham kissed his knuckles.

Soda woke up.

–

He was in his bed in his cabin, not in the beach house and not on the beach. And he was alone.

His heart was racing, and his dick was hard.

Jesus.

He sat up, put his head in his hands and tried to stop thinking about his dream. He’d had all kinds of sexy dreams before, he’d woken up hard nearly as many times as he had woken up with a sticky mess in his pants. Hell, this wasn’t even the first time he had dreamt of a guy.

But he’d never woken up feeling so rattled.

His heart was still hammering away in his chest as he tried to make sense of that.

It couldn’t have been the kissing, he usually kissed the people he fucked in his dreams so…

His thoughts filled with the fading images of Gundham fucking him, his dick took interested, he remembered the feeling of Gundham’s lips, and his heart beat impossibly faster.

Oh.

It must have been the whole getting fucked thing. Had he dreamt of that before? Probably not right?

Soda exhaled shakily. Yeah, it was definitely the thought of getting fucked that was affecting him so much. His brain was getting caught up on it because he had no frame of reference for it, he had never had a dick or anything in his ass, duh, so he was just shaken up cus like, uh-

What would it feel like to have something in his ass? It was really good in his dream, but there was no way if would feel that way for real.

Right?

Fuck.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Maybe it really did feel amazing, there were lots of people who were, like, super into anal, so at the very least it couldn’t be bad. Plus, that was where the G-spot was supposed to be on dudes, right? So…

He was going to need lube if he actually wanted to try this. He glanced over to a toolbox that he knew had a bottle of oil inside it. That would probably work.

But what if it didn’t? What if he got, like, oil-poisoning and had to explain to some doctor why exactly he had been putting it up his ass.

“Well ya see doc, I had a dream about this really hot dude and-“

Nope. That was not fucking happening.

The supermarket here had condoms; he had been checking the place out on the first day they had arrived, and had totally not felt flustered at all when he saw them just casually sitting in one of the aisles. He didn’t need condoms (shit, did he need condoms?) but if they had lube, that’s probably where it’d be, right?

He glanced at the clock. Everyone would be eating breakfast right now. If he wanted to do this without getting caught, he had to do it now.

He got dressed and hid his boner as best he could, promising his dick if it could just chill for now, he’d be sure to give it plenty of attention later. The thought did not help his dick chill. Whatever.

He stepped out of his cabin and looked around in a totally unsuspicious way to make sure none of his classmates were around before heading for the supermarket.

–

How had he even made it this far? He knew his face was bright red as he stared at the little shelf where he had seen the condoms on the first day. Yup, still lots of condoms. He couldn’t help but gawk at a box labeled ‘XXXL’, and remember that Gundham was, in fact, quite well hung.

But XXXL? That had to be a joke, right? No one had a XXXL dick, right? Right?

Focus dumbass.

He shifted his gaze to the selection of lube. There were more options than he thought. Really, he had kinda just pictured there being one generic looking bottle labeled ‘lube’ that he could just grab and leave, but no, apparently there were options.

He fucking choked when he saw that one was banana flavored.

Well, at least that gets rid of one option. He quickly scanned them and ruled out anything with a flavor or an obnoxious color and settled on one that seemed pretty inconspicuous.

Like, it still said ‘Personal Lubricant’ in big ass letters across the bottle, but whatever.

He grabbed a pack on non-XXXL condoms for good measure and exited the aisle.

“Hm? Soda?”

This creepy fucking guy again.

Soda shoved the condoms in his pocket and moved to hide the lube behind his back in a totally subtle way.

“Oh what’s this?” Nagito reached out and plucked the lube from Soda’s hand. “Oh my. Could this have anything to do with what I overheard last night?” Nagito’s face was neutral and friendly, but there was definitely something weird in his eyes.

Shit. Right, Nagito had overheard him offering to ‘aid’ Gundham. Had he really figured out what that meant so easily? No way. It was probably just a lucky guess, which meant Soda could still get out of this situation by lying his ass off.

“W-what? No idea what you’re talkin’ bout dude.” Totally believable. He was a pro at lying. “Just needed some lubricant for the, uh, thing I’m working on. Like, obviously this isn’t the type I’d usually use, but they don’t have a, like, automotive section here or anything so I figured this would probably work well enough.” That should be convincing enough, Nagito probably didn’t know shit about what Soda did so there’s no way he could know for sure if he was lying. He forced a laugh and took the lube from Nagito’s hands. “Anyways, gotta get back to it.” He shot Nagito some finger guns and pushed past him to leave.

He was sure he was just being paranoid and imagining things when he heard Nagito mumble something that sounded like ‘Gundham’ before laughing creepily behind him.

Fuuuck.

He ran back to his cabin. If anyone saw he’d just make up an excuse later. There was literally no way Nagito could actually know what him and Gundham had been doing, right? He must have just been fucking with him, that’s what that guy was all about. He was just looking to get a rise out of Soda by saying weird shit.

Right?

Soda set the lube on his side table and laid facedown on his bed. Shit. Why had Nagito even been at the supermarket? Everyone should have been at breakfast still. Had Nagito been looking for him? No way. There were only like two people who might have cared that much that he missed breakfast: Hajime and…

He turned his head to stare at the lube.

This was all Gundham’s fault. Stupid, sexy Gundham, making him have stupid, sexy dreams, and giving him stupid, sexy thoughts.

He thought about Gundham’s cock in his ass. He thought about Gundham’s lips on his.

He reached for the lube.

There was a knock on the door.

His heart jumped and he stood up.

“Y-yeah, one second.” He adjusted his dick, which was thankfully only at half-mast, and answered the door.

Speak of the stupid, sexy devil.

“Is everything well, my companion? You were absent from this mornings meal, and I feared you had caught ill.” Gundham gently placed the back of his hand on Soda’s, admittedly heated, forehead.

“O-oh, nah, I’m good. I just needed- uh, I went to the supermarket to get- like, I just needed… stuff. Mechanic stuff. Cus I’m a mechanic. Ha.” Smooth. “Anyway, I guess I just, uh, forgot about breakfast?”

Gundham squinted at Soda and examined his face for a moment.

“Was your slumber troubled? You have the markings of one who’s rest was interrupted.”

Great, he must be rocking some pretty serious eyebags if Gundham was so concerned.

“Ah, it’s nothing. Just one of those nights, y’know?” One of those nights where you dream about your bro kissing you and fucking you senseless, y’know? One of those nights where you wake up so damn affected by the thought of your friend plowing your ass that you need to immediately go buy some lube and test out the real thing ASAP, y’know?

Yup, just one of those totally normal nights.

Speaking of, Soda remembered that the lube was still sitting on his side table, entirely visible from the door. Better get Gundham out of here before he notices…

Or?

“If you were not suffering from some affliction then you should have joined us to break your fast. It is important for mortals-”

Gundham was lecturing him about the importance of breakfast. But Soda was too busy watching his lips to listen. Or at least he was, until Gundham began accentuating his speech with flourishes of his hands and Soda found a new place to focus his attention.

Gundham’s fingers were slender and long, and, from what Soda could remember, they were strong. Maybe he could just… ask Gundham to help him figure out the whole ‘does it actually feel good to have stuff in your ass’ thing. He’d probably do it right? He’d probably be more than happy to help Soda out with those wonderful fingers of his, and he’d probably enjoy it just as much as Soda would…

But what if Soda didn’t like it? Like what if he created this whole sexy mood and then once things started getting hot and heavy he just, like, wasn’t into it? Would Gundham get mad? If Soda asked him to stick his fingers in his ass, then Gundham would probably… god, he’d probably assume that meant they were gonna fuck after, so if Soda changed his mind, he wouldn’t even blame Gundham for getting pissed. You can’t just blue-ball a guy like that and expect him to be okay with it…

Ok, so he should probably just keep the lube for a solo session.

He forced himself to focus on what Gundham was saying again. Still talking about breakfast, good.

“Okay, okay. I get it Gundham.” He raised his hands in defeat. “Let’s go get me some breakfast before I die of no-breakfast-itis or whatever.”

Gundham looked like he was debating calling Soda out for obviously not listening to whatever he had been saying about the importance of breakfast. He simply followed Soda to the hotel restaurant instead.

It felt a little weird to find the restaurant empty. Soda never really came here outside of the group’s regular meal times, so he was used to it being full of activity and noise. Now it was so quiet he could hear the ocean waves in the distance, and he thought to himself that it actually wouldn’t be a bad place to take a girl on a date.

Soda found some cereal and a bagel to eat, then took his spot at the big table they all normally ate at. Gundham took his seat beside him as usual. Wait, was it as usual? Did they usually sit this close? Gundham’s knee was touching his. Nope, pretty sure that was new.

Gundham began talking about the Deva’s. Soda thought he caught something about how Jum-P was doing well, and he was pretty sure he managed to say he was glad, but mostly he was just certain that he really liked the hand Gundham had rested on his lower back.

He was smiling while eating, and he had to actively remind himself to close his mouth all the way while he chewed. He watched Gundham between bites of his breakfast. He looked happy as well.

Soda let himself enjoy his surprisingly good mood, he felt like he had been stressing so much lately. What had he even been so worked up about? Sitting like this, chatting about nothing with Gundham’s arm around him, just felt nice. He felt calm. He felt happy.

He laughed at something Gundham said and bumped his head against his shoulder, letting himself just stay there for a moment. He wrapped an arm around Gundham’s back and gave a little squeeze, sighing and just taking a moment, before laughing again as he returned to his previous position to finish eating.

That had felt so nice. Why didn’t he hug his friends more? He looked to Gundham to make sure it hadn’t weirded him out or anything. He was rewarded with one of those soft little smiles he loved so much, proving his friend had enjoyed it just as much.

Gundham… was his friend, right?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone coming up the stairs.

It felt like a bubble popped. Suddenly his stomach dropped, and he moved his knee away from Gundham’s. He shifted his shoulders and Gundham seemed to get the hint, removing that warm hand from his back.

Soda told himself he was glad.

“Ah, so this is where you were Gundham!”

That was… Sonia. Soda heart did about six different things at once and he couldn’t tell if he was more excited, scared, or disappointed to see her.

“Hi Sonia.”

“Greetings, dark queen.”

He sounded so pathetic next to Gundham, no wonder Sonia ignored him.

“Gundham, I wanted to ask you about a creature I saw earlier.” Sonia sat across from them and began to describe some animal. Soda’s head just filled with static.

He stared at her, still so lovely, still so perfect, and yet, looking at her didn’t make him feel the way it used to. He watched her ignore him and he could feel his heart breaking. Of course she had never like him, what did he have to offer someone like her?

What did he have to offer anyone?

He was just some stupid mechanic. His grades were below average, and his family was poor. He wasn’t even attractive or funny or anything. He was just a waste of space, he really couldn’t blame Sonia for ignoring him. Everyone should probably just ignore him. No one actually cared about him. He should just-

There was a warm hand on his shoulder. Gundham was looking at him questioningly.

“W-what?”

“I was asking your opinion, dear friend, the dark queen and I were discussing how enjoyable our trip has been thus far. Do you feel the same?”

Gundham smiled at him, but there was a bit of concern in his eyes.

Right.

Some people did care about him.

Sonia not caring didn’t mean no one did.

Sonia wasn’t everything.

He opened his mouth to tell Gundham that, yeah, despite how confused and anxious he had been recently, he did feel the same.

“Soda, it is impolite not to answer someone when they ask you a question. You even made Gundham repeat himself, yet you are still ignoring him. You should apologize for being so rude.”

Something snapped in Soda and he could feel his face turn red.

Sonia wanted him to apologize for ignoring someone?

He stood abruptly and didn’t look at either of them. He was shaking with how hard he was trying not to shout. He just swallowed and turned from the table.

“My companion?” Gundham sounded worried now. Soda felt kinda guilty about it, but he just needed to get away before he said something stupid.

“Sorry.” He muttered as he moved towards the stairs.

He knew he heard Sonia say something about him having no manners as he left.

He just walked a little faster. He kept his eyes focused on the ground and his fists clenched all the way back to his cabin.

He though he would yell when he got there. Yell and maybe break something he’d regret ruining later. But once he closed the door, he just felt tired and sad. He crouched down and pushed the heels of his palms into his eyes to stop himself from crying.

Yeah, it didn’t work.

He was sobbing. Crying alone in his room like a pussy, but he could hardly bring himself to care. Why did he even like Sonia? And why did she have to treat him like such shit? It wasn’t like he was actually rude to her, right? Like, sure, sometimes he stared more than he probably should, but was that really so bad? Wasn’t that actually like a compliment? Girls loved guys obsessing over how hot they-

Oh.

Soda was an asshole. Of course Sonia hated him. He was just constantly, like, leering at her, wasn’t he? And he was always following her around when she obviously didn’t want him there, and trying to insert himself into her conversations. He just never took the hint that she didn’t like him, huh? No wonder she had just started ignoring him completely.

Shit. He needed to apologize to her. And then he needed to just… leave her alone. She probably wouldn’t ever like him, but maybe if he left her alone long enough?

No. If he kept thinking like that then he’d probably just piss her off even more.

Still, it wasn’t like she had to treat Soda so badly. Like, she could have just told him off instead, it would have hurt less.

Ok, well, in her defense, confronting someone like that was pretty hard, so really, it was probably entirely Soda’s fault for not realizing what a jackass he was being earlier.

He let out a deep, shaky breath, and was surprised to find he actually felt a little better.

Huh. He didn’t think admitting he had been wrong would have felt so… relieving?

He got up and sat on hid bed so he could stop crouching in the middle of his room like a crazy person. He rubbed the dried tears from his cheeks and let himself just breathe for a while. It wasn’t like he was over Sonia, but he was ready to accept that it probably wouldn’t have been the best relationship for either of them…

It was probably thanks to Gundham that he was finally able to realize that. Now that he wasn’t so damn sexually frustrated, he was finally able to see things a little more clearly. Well, maybe it wasn’t just the sex that had helped. He thought back to the way he had felt before Sonia had shown up to crash his breakfast with Gundham. Gundham just made him feel like… like maybe he wasn’t the failure everyone thought he was.

But the sex was pretty damn good too, even if it wasn’t, like, sex sex…

Soda glanced at the bottle that was still sitting on his side table.

Yet.

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[peshcel]

Riddle Me This: A Tom Riddle Character Study

[Also posted on Reddit, if you want to comment/share your thoughts!] 

Riddle Me This: A Tom Riddle Character Study

*Warnings: some profanity, spoilers, and puns.

‘Twas but a regular Saturday eve when a question of utmost importance grabbed hold of me: ‘Voldemort, why such a You-Know-What?’

You see, while Voldemort appears to be a very classic villain, Tom has proven to be an enigma wrapped in a Riddle (hehe). So, equipped with what I remembered from my BSc in Social Psychology, I also called upon my therapist friend with an MSc in Forensic Psychology to explore what would drive someone like Tom Riddle to become Lord Voldemort.

In this gone-awry Reddit comment, I will drag you along for a deep dive into how our little Dark Lord grew up and discuss concepts like power, control, sense of self, and terror management – all up to the point where Tom Marvolo Riddle introduces his clever anagram ‘Immortal Love Rodd’ ‘I am Lord Voldemort.’

Join me on this character study journey of about 5,500 words (15-30 min) where I try to figure out how Voldemort came to be.

Oh, and be sure to share your thoughts at the end of the ride!

 Baby Lord Voldemort: A Pensive Pensieve Trip

“Voldemort is my past, present, and future.”

 Long before we found out Snake-face Voldemort had barely a soul left, we thought he was the purest form of evil out there. He had done despicable things before his supposed death and had now resurfaced as a gross face on the back of someone’s head, hell-bent on killing this little kid. As we gradually learned, Voldemort was once Tom Riddle: a charming, brilliant, orphaned Wizard with the potential to go on and do great things. But, we also learned many little tidbits about the circumstances before his birth, about how he grew up and how he portrayed himself at Hogwarts, which has given us just enough to come up with our own theories about his personality and how he was shaped.

So, before we continue, let me quickly arm you with some abnormal psych. terminology. Both Riddle and Voldemort really match the three personality traits of (malignant) narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, aptly known as ‘The Dark Triad’. 

Plucked straight from the Wiki, summarized for your convenience:

Narcissism

is characterized by grandiosity, pride, egotism, and a lack of empathy. 

Malignant narcissism

is when narcissism is combined with antisocial behaviors; the evil side of narcissism. (I stumbled upon

A Study in Evil: Voldemort, the Malignant Narcissist

after writing all of this, but I highly recommend giving it a read if you want a deep dive.)

Machiavellianism

is characterized by manipulation and exploitation of others, an absence of morality, unemotional callousness, and a higher level of self-interest.

Psychopathy

is characterized by continuous antisocial behavior, impulsivity, selfishness, callous and unemotional traits (CU), and remorselessness. (Better distinguished as ‘primary psychopathy’.)

*Sidenote: the term ‘sociopath’ is quite often used in pop culture, sometimes even interchangeably with ‘psychopath’. The actual diagnostic term is ‘antisocial personality disorder’, as described by the DSM-5. However, there is a difference between sociopathy and psychopathy, a whole slew of them actually. Important to note is that a ‘sociopath’ refers to a person with antisocial tendencies that are ascribed to social or environmental factors, whereas psychopathic traits are thought to be more innate, i.e. genetic causes (x).

We are given facts in the book that suggest psychopathic, antisocial, and (malignant) narcissistic traits are evident in Tom Riddle from early childhood. Using all that information, I want to take you on a ride to see how all these tidbits together shaped Tom Riddle and how that would lead him to become Lord Voldemort (not to be confused with ‘going Full Voldemort’).

  The Interplay of Nature and Nurture, and Magic

Psychopathy is believed to be a complex interworking of mostly nature but also nurture, let’s unpack this in regards to Riddle.

Tom Riddle is born to a Pure-blood mother, Merope Gaunt, and a Muggle father, Tom Riddle Sr. When we are first introduced to the Gaunts, Salazar Slytherin’s last descendants, we meet a violent father and son, and a daughter who takes the brunt of it. We are told that the entire Gaunt line has a history of inbreeding and that they are known to produce individuals with violent and unstable personalities. They live in dire conditions but are incredibly proud people and sneer at the mere existence of Muggles. Merope grows up poor and abused, traumatized, ridiculed for her lack of magic that seems to be more the result of the abuse than the cause for it. Not far from their shack in Little Hangleton lives Tom Riddle Sr.: rich, handsome, somewhat of a prat, and the object of Merope’s affections. Being no great beauty and with little to offer, she “hoodwinks” Tom Riddle Sr. and escapes her dreadful life with her family. Merope is soon with child after their marriage and decides to release Tom Riddle Sr. of whatever spell he’s under, but he leaves her immediately.

Let’s consider the circumstances surrounding the conception of Tom Riddle. J.K. Rowling said that Voldemort could not understand love as he was conceived in a ‘loveless union’. However, she also stated that had Merope decided to live and raise Tom, his life would’ve turned out differently by knowing ‘love’. We could understand the tidbits shared by J.K. to mean that a child born into a loveless union would perhaps grow up in a loveless household, would have no good examples of what love is and would not know or be shown love. While Dumbledore hints that he suspects Merope used a Love Potion to “hoodwink” Tom Riddle Sr., we only know that magic was used. I always understood said ‘loveless union’ to be a magical violation – violation in every sense of the word – and that Tom’s incapability to love was due to magic that tried to correct a balance, i.e. the Laws of Magic™ were violated. Now, I’m no Magical Theorist, but this could mean that actual Magic™ is at play in addition to a genetic predisposition to explain Tom’s psychopathic traits.

Apart from these genetic and magical factors, we could also consider the environmental factors that influenced the biological development of Tom. Merope was left destitute and depressed when Riddle Sr. abandoned her while pregnant. In the dead of winter, with a lot of stressors and suppressed magic, she gave birth to Tom at the orphanage and then died. While we don’t know how her pregnancy developed, this being all guesswork, the prenatal stressors and perhaps a complicated birth due to her suppressed magic could have influenced Tom’s brain development. Brain development or deviating brain structures are linked to psychopathy (x). Simply said, the parts of the brain responsible for empathy and guilt or fear and anxiety don’t work the same for psychopaths, e.g. they don’t experience fear or other affects the way others might. In a psychopathic child, for example, this could mean that they would be hard to socialize because they don’t fear punishment even though they might know that it is a consequence of their behavior. It’s also what makes them great liars (psychopaths can ace a lie detector test like no other). It can also mean being more prone to boredom and seeking thrills as a result (low arousal theory). We could even view all of this in light of ‘Magic™ development’ instead of the Muggle term ‘brain development’.

In addition to taking into account these hereditary, biological and prenatal factors, we'd be remiss not to look at the effect of nurture. Now, we don’t actually know that much about Tom’s early childhood except for what we learn during Dumbledore’s visit to Wool’s Orphanage in 1938. We find out that Tom steals from people, has no qualms about hurting animals, scares and bullies other children, and is a consummate liar ‒ all while having/showing no remorse. Mrs. Cole, the matron of the orphanage, refers to Tom as being a funny boy and odd, that he was a “funny baby, too” and “hardly ever cried”. It is conceivable that the caretakers gave him less attention in response to his lack of showing his needs through crying and that he was picked up and held less often. It could also be a chicken-or-egg situation: perhaps he didn’t cry because he learned his cries would not be responded to, etc. Even if we leave magic out of the equation as to why they would find him ‘funny’, it is likely that he showed general ‘abnormal’ responses and behaviors not appropriate for his developmental stage that were unsettling to others. It is easy to assume that this would lead to people distancing themselves from him and alienating him further. Regardless of cause-effect, there are clear signs here that Tom grows up maladjusted and that his attachment style falls somewhere along the dismissive-avoidant. I think we can assume that the lack of developing a relationship with at least one primary caregiver would really put a damper on having any semblance of a ‘normal’ social and emotional development.

There seems to be a clear interplay here of genetic, biological (magical) and environmental factors as the perfect foundation for dysfunctional personality traits to really come to fruition.

  Power & Control: A Narcissistic Trip 

 “There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it.”

 Strap in as we first take a little detour for a quick exploration of narcissism. As previously stated, we clearly see signs of malignant narcissism in young Tom, characterized by grandiosity, pride, egotism, and a lack of empathy, combined with antisocial behaviors. What is particularly applicable in Tom’s case is Kohut’s theory of narcissism. 

The Little Narcissist

 In psychoanalytic theory, primary narcissism in children is part of their development.

It is normal for children to develop self-love and object-love, as Kohut puts it. Entertaining notions of greatness, magical thinking, feeling omnipotent and omniscient and believing to have a certain immunity to the consequences of their actions is all part of this development. It is quite innocent, but it can become pathological. According to Kohut, children are normally gently disillusioned of these grand notions, in a nontraumatic manner, by maturing and becoming part of society. Pathological narcissism, however, develops when the child basically has defective narcissistic structures of the self by having this process disrupted.

This defective structure fits Tom Riddle to a T. In addition, Kohut’s theory of object-love really applies here as well. According to Kohut, either a child has a ‘mother’ to confirm their grandiosity, or they seek an adult to create an ‘idealized parent image’. This means they will seek an adult, someone powerful they can look up to, so they can bask in their reflected glory. For Tom, having neither someone to confirm his grandiosity nor someone to look up to means he creates his own powerful parent. We notice this when Tom explicitly asks Dumbledore about his father being a Wizard, since his mother obviously could not have been; she wouldn’t have died if she was. One can imagine his (narcissistic) rage when this image was shattered later on. His five-year search for the Chamber of Secrets to confirm he’s the Heir of Slytherin is a direct result of Tom’s continued search for a sense of self.

  The Narcissist’s Plight: Need for Control

 One of our main human motivational processes is the desire for control. Actually, it is perceived control that really helps our general sense of well-being. This need exists and is deeply embedded in all of us. However, when people are tried and tested, feel threatened or powerless, a lack of agency can kickstart all kinds of coping mechanisms to maintain the sense of self. So, simply put: the less perceived control you have, the greater the need. 

 When we speak of power, we speak of control. If there is anyone who is desperate for control it’s the narcissist. The narcissist is believed to have such low self-esteem and fragile ego that it will, subconsciously, protect itself from being injured at all costs. Controlling your circumstances and those around you is a means of guarding and protecting the ego. Anything less just won’t do. A threat to that control, that power, is a perceived threat to the sense of self.

Power is a concept that really tickles Riddle/Voldemort’s Niffler as we pretty much learn from the get-go. Consider again, for a moment, where and how Tom grew up. His ability to control came from his magic. Seeing as how Tom grew up in an orphanage, not a penny to his name and very few resources, I think that Tom learned early on that everything could so easily be taken away from him ‒ by someone bigger, older, someone who had more power. While Tom could ‘control’ his circumstances to some degree with his magic, he was still a child. He seemed to have an innate understanding of his powerlessness, i.e. lack of control. Perhaps less helpless than other children, but still a child dependent on others. Not only that, but he was dependent on people he deemed lesser than him, less intelligent, less special. Something a narcissist like Tom would deeply resent. The thing here is that viewing others as beneath you or believing oneself to be superior to others is an ego defense to deal with insecurity, shame, rejection, etc. Tom develops this ego defense but also gets confirmation of his grandiosity through having magical power that actually does set him apart.

 Rejection is another big theme in the life of a narcissist; one that Tom was very familiar with. He was unwanted and fully made aware of it: his mother ‘left’ him by dying, his father never came for him, he was not chosen for adoption, and there were many other children vying for attention. Attention that Tom did not receive but perhaps believed he was owed. Originating from a sense of entitlement, someone like Tom would come to view any sort of rejection as a slight (for he is smarter, better, etc.). While Tom might not have even wanted such attention or even had a particular need to belong – considering he didn’t view anyone as a peer/equal – the fact that it was not automatically given to him was probably construed as insulting. 

  Control Through Controlling Others

 Mrs. Cole told Dumbledore that Tom scared the other children and that it was hard to catch him at any bullying or other malicious acts. With the ability to control his magic at such a young age, along with being highly intelligent, he was quick to figure out how to use this to his advantage. He could fly under the radar when needed, manipulate those in power, and use his skills to control others through fear ‒ ultimately to protect himself and what little he had, but also relishing how he could lord his power over others, establishing his superiority and showing them all how special he was. I believe that Tom honed the art of manipulation at a young age as he couldn’t fathom other ways of tying people to him, of forming relationships ‒ unless there was fear or a sense of owing. His magic gave him the additional tools to control those that didn’t have it.

Then, a defining moment: Tom meets Dumbledore.  Using the same control tactics he has probably used with everyone around, Tom tries to command Dumble to do/say certain things. If you squint, you could even say that Tom was able to put a magical compulsion in his commands. Dumbledore, being who he is, is unmoved and even gently puts Tom in his place, which in Tom’s eyes would be considered a slight.

When Tom learns there is a word for his abilities, he is very eager to show off and be acknowledged for it by someone he could potentially identify with, someone who can show him the path to more knowledge, more power, someone ‘worthy’. For the first time, he encounters someone he wants to impress; he does this by boasting about his abilities. How telling it is that our Little Lord says that he “can make bad things happen to people who annoy me,” – not “mean to me” as the movie had us believe.

Here, Tom seems to have accidentally truly revealed himself – perhaps for the first time, definitely the last time. Out of childlike excitement and eagerness, he has shown his hand, which he immediately regrets when it is not followed by recognition and/or approval from Dumbledore. Dumbledore, quickly catching on to the power dynamics, asks Tom to address him as ‘sir’ or ‘professor’ and immediately establishes his authority. Tom accepts it begrudgingly, “expression hardened”, as he needs Dumbledore to tell him more. Upon Tom’s demand, Dumbledore’s power is then quickly, and casually, displayed when he uses the Flame-Freezing charm on Tom’s wardrobe. If I’m being honest, I always found Dumbledore’s ‘casual’ display of power to be very loaded and quite problematic, ‘destroying’ something of Tom’s where he had stashed his very few possessions. Yet, Tom quickly goes from outrage to “expression greedy” when he realizes Dumbledore was just showing his power and using it to impress, i.e. instill fear (Tom immediately asks Dumbledore where he can get “one of them [wands]”). 

When Dumbledore uses his ‘power’ to then confront Tom with his stealing and bullying, Tom reluctantly concedes that he cannot manipulate Dumbledore and doesn’t deny his actions, knowing that ‘being truthful’ is how he can appease and steer Dumbledore. He even accepts the humiliation of having to return the stolen items and apologize to others.

Honestly, the whole interaction between them is so significant, so amazing and so telling of Tom’s typical interpersonal dynamics and relationships. It’s no wonder he starts to despise and avoid Dumbledore. Tom had made himself the master of his little universe, believing that no other has his special type of power. Not only did Tom lose his cool during the conversation, he showed weakness by being vulnerable. As Tom learns when he joins the Wizarding World, Dumbledore is even more powerful than he thought and holds strong political power to boot. Someone like Dumbledore, for example, is not just threatening because of his power but because he can see behind Tom’s mask. 

  Control in the Wizarding World

 The interaction with Dumbledore seems to set the tone for Tom’s understanding of ‘power’ in the Wizarding World. It is something he further internalizes when he arrives at Hogwarts and gets sorted into Slytherin, a House of mainly Pure-bloods. I wholeheartedly believe that this little Snake immediately understood the blood status dynamics at school and the hierarchy within Slytherin House; things beyond his control. It is not a stretch to believe that the Slytherins, in particular, bullied him, ostracised him—rejected him—for his lack of Wizarding name, lack of status and money, and tried to show and put him in his place, thus fueling his rage. So at the age of 11, Tom had the mental acuity to realize he needed other tactics to become influential, to wield his power. 

Seeing power and status being inherently awarded to Pure-bloods, the very ones who reject him, his own search for a claim to power/his superiority starts off with an obsessive in-depth exploration of his heritage. It is natural to assume that, along with this quest, Tom educated himself on social politics and how to improve himself. He was able to show humility and regard for others, be inhibited and not boastful. We learn from Dumbledore that Tom at Hogwarts showed signs of covert narcissism: no outward signs of arrogance or aggression, seemed polite, quiet, and thirsty for knowledge. He had already learned how to control certain impulses, ingratiate himself, how to hide in plain sight. He just continued to perfect it; he became above reproach by being the perfect student in the eyes of the adults, while fooling his fellow students and building his own following (feeding his ego along the way). He played into Slytherin politics and managed to establish himself as something to behold and to be frightened of, especially when he learned of being a descendent of Salazar Slytherin – a legit claim to power. He now had proof of something he had always believed: I am above them. 

  Loss of Control and Terror Management

 Throughout his time at Hogwarts, Tom managed to perfect his control over others. Despite all his received praise and accolades, his ego remained fragile. I think the fact that he could not escape his blood status, his class – made especially salient when he had to return to the orphanage during the summer – really fueled his obsession to confirm he’s the Heir, i.e. to strengthen his sense of self. 

 Apart from the orphanage, Tom spends the rest of his formative years at Hogwarts, where he is, at most, considered a Half-blood if not a Muggle-born – i.e. lesser than. His fragile ego and sense of self is constantly challenged if not outright attacked. What’s even more confronting is that he also still has to return to the orphanage during summer break in the years 1938-1945 until he is of age. A place where he cannot use his magic; where he cannot sow the merits of his efforts at Hogwarts; a place where he has little to no control. He has to go back to being an orphan, in an orphanage, among Muggles. This having to return to Hogwarts is even more interesting to note when you consider there is both a Muggle war (WW2) and a Wizarding war (Grindelwald) happening.

 That’s why we should also place all of this in the context of when this all took place. Tom experiences both WW2 and the Grindelwald days while he’s a teenager and still at Hogwarts. While he was safe at Hogwarts during most of the year and the winter holidays, he still had to return during the summer. Let me quickly add here that Grindelwald never attacked Britain, but Muggle London was dealing with (the threat of) bombings during those years, with heavy losses in terms of homes, businesses, and lives. Tom just about avoided The Blitz (Sep 7, 1940 – May 11, 1941) and the evacuation of children of Sep 1, 1939 (although, how he managed that, don’t ask). It’s safe to say that times were incredibly tough and unsafe in those days. 

 So on that note, let me introduce you to Terror Management Theory (TMT). It basically means that when faced with ‘terror’, i.e. one’s own mortality, the anxiety that goes with it can make people do some really effed up things. People will start chasing ways to boost their self-esteem, their self-worth, and for ways to confirm that their life has meaning and that they certainly are not insignificant or disposable. That they matter. Mind you, this all takes place without people even realizing that this is driving them. This theory rears its head when we speak of racism as well. In trying to elevate their sense of self, people can attach great importance to the group they identify with. They will then seek out ways to confirm their group is superior to others (well, well, well). 

This theory seems to also fit Tom’s strange, half-assed Heir of Slytherin shenanigans. Same as what happened in the interaction with Dumbledore, Tom’s glee at finding out he’s indeed special makes him impulsive and greedy, disregarding the consequences and acting out of his ‘careful’ character. He has new power within his grasp, new thrills to seek and uncover. In his excitement, he is reckless and gets Myrtle Warren killed. While the rest of his attacks seem very planned and controlled, perhaps to impress his new Knights but most likely to see how far he could push boundaries, it also shows that he either doesn't think or doesn’t care about potential consequences. He is arrogant and unfearing. He could never get caught. Tom only starts caring when his actions become disadvantageous to himself; Hogwarts would close if the attacks continued, meaning he would lose all that he had skilfully and carefully cultivated.

In short, the need for control can drive one to go to really terrible lengths. Straight up tomfoolery, if you will. And if anyone went to great lengths, it was Tom Riddle’s becoming of Lord Voldemort.

  Becoming Lord Voldemort:  The Narcissistic Psychopathic Wizard’s Guide to Ultimate Power

“What I was, even I do not know … I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal – to conquer death.”

 Before we found out the little tidbits about Tom Riddle, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s motives seemed straightforward: Pure-bloods must reign supreme. Knowing what we know now, it would be too simplistic to state that Lord Voldemort was purely driven by hatred for an imagined inferior Other. Namely because at the core of hatred lies fear. A need for control and the deep-seated fear of losing said control would be something Tom would and could never admit to. It would mean acknowledging that something (i.e. fear) had control over him, in effect a weakness.

He is a Half-blood orphan with nothing to his name, a nobody. He has a smidgen of hope when he discovers he is a descendent of Salazar through the Gaunts, but any notion of tangible rewards associated with that is shattered when he finds the Gaunts fallen from grace into obscurity. There is fear of forever being a nobody, unremarkable; entering the world with nothing and leaving the world with nothing ‒ all the while knowing that he is obviously destined for greatness (hello narcissist, my old friend). 

He derived his new sense of self from being a descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin, who ‘rightfully’ detested those of lesser blood. As is typical for the malignant narcissist, Tom really has a ‘transparent’ defense mechanism to protect his fragile ego: projection. His hatred of his own lack of pure blood leads him to distance himself from it, denying whatever undermines his belief of being something special and extraordinary or not being worthy of the name. Distancing himself from that what makes him common and unworthy, he literally takes on a new name and kills off the Riddles. By going to extreme lengths, he can distance himself and 'eradicate' that what he despises most about himself. He is not like those 'filthy' Muggles: the ones he was forced to be dependent on, those lesser beings that deprived him of what he was owed; the ones that left his mother for dead, etc.

His 'great' blood is obviously the reason for his 'greatness', his destiny. Not only was this thought fed by the Pure-bloods around him, but it is the rhetoric that gives him a supply of Pure-bloods fanning at his feet. A thrill in of itself to see the privileged worship him. 

Riddle's actions seem to have always been very self-serving. He never preached what Grindelwald did; it was never for the ‘greater good’. It is quite evident in the vagueness of Voldemort’s politics regarding purity. It was simply a means to an end; just a way to see how far he could go in amassing power. The ‘mission & vision’ he proposed was probably one of the few things that Pure-bloods could get behind and would go to great lengths to achieve/protect. For Tom, it was a way of opening doors. Not only financially and socially, but also in terms of access to knowledge hoarded and guarded by Pure-bloods. Becoming and remaining uncontested in every sense of the word would mean being in control. No longer dependent on what others are willing to ‘grant’ him. No one would ever be able to challenge Him, take anything from Him, ever again: the ultimate power.  

Control of the Uncontrollable

So let’s turn our attention back to power: what would be ultimate power for a Wizard? Something a Wizard has never done and somewhere a Wizard has never gone before: beyond the veils of Death; surpassing mortal constructs ‒ and defeating something as terribly common as 'death'. I think this seed, this fear, was planted in Tom’s mind from a very young age. We see it when he asks Dumbledore whether his father was a wizard, for his mother couldn’t have been “or she wouldn’t have died”. Aptly enough, this fear of death or anxiety induced by the thought of one's one mortality stems from low self-esteem, which a narcissist has in abundance.

It’s also interesting to go back to a psychopath’s psychophysiology. Psychopaths are believed to have low arousal compared to others and are prone to boredom. They could go to lengths to find a ‘thrill’. Discovering the limits, pushing boundaries and going beyond that would be completely on-brand for a Wizard with psychopathic tendencies. Maybe I’ve read too many fanfictions, but a common thought seems to be that the Dark Arts are highly addictive, so someone like Tom would keep pushing it and pushing it, until he could go where no one has gone before. Thus begins his slow decline a la: ‘A Horcrux, you say? Hold my butterbeer, imma make 7.’ 

It’s intriguing that he went for dependence on external objects to safeguard his continued survival. Objects that he either entrusted his most loyal followers with or hid in locations that had meaning to only him. He even had a magical living creature be the container. As we saw over the course of the series, it really wasn’t all that foolproof. But that’s the arrogance of Tom Riddle; he believed that while not many Wizards would even go down the path of creating a Horcrux, none would even conceive creating seven. What’s more, how would anyone even have the smarts to figure out his pattern, his way of thinking – preposterous. If only he had known about the Hallows sooner. Alas.

Granted, there were other ways of circumventing mortality. But ‘cheating’ death by becoming a vampire, for example, would mean being a slave to one's own bloodlust and limitations, dependent on others still to sustain you, i.e. no control, still killable. Another obvious avenue would be using the Philosopher’s Stone as Flamel did, but it would not be anything new. Stealing it or copying it would mean nothing to him. He would be ‘immortal’ but weak and feeble, dependent on a stone, also still killable. So it seems that it’s not necessarily immortality in and of itself, but controlling how and when you die. 

Conclusion: Spiraling out of Control

To summarize the why, Tom Riddle was a narcissistic psychopath with a high IQ, immense magical ability, a chip on his shoulder and something to prove ‒ and a need to be acknowledged for it. The potent mix of nature, magic, and nurture seemed to have really worked their, ehm, magic (sorry). Tom’s ‘abnormal’ behaviors in his childhood were strong predicting factors for the potential to entertain notions of one day being a Dark Lord. However, the odds seem like they were already in that favor before he was even born when we consider his genetic makeup along with the circumstances surrounding his conception and his birth. The Muggle environment he grew up in and the Magical world he was then introduced appear to be the ‘umami’ flavoring for the mix to inevitably lead him down his self-destructive path. 

Tom’s actions and behaviors all seem to boil down to an excessive need for control and the deep-seated fear of losing it. Growing up with Muggles, he used all his talents to exert his control over those weaker, sans Magique. In his peak Riddle days, Tom was quick to figure out he could control people by using his glib charm, his looks, and his extreme intelligence to manipulate everything to his liking. He was able to trick people into ‘wanting’ to give him the things he desires, making people believe that he’s ‘giving’ them something in return. With his psychopathy and narcissism fully taking the wheel, it seems that he no longer cared – or saw the need – to pretend to cater to the wishes of others. Fear became his main tool in the peak Voldemort days; the only thing he deigned to ‘give’ others was allowing them to stay alive, avoid punishment, or allowing them to unleash their darkest fantasies. In chasing evermore control, power, he ends up spiraling. His actions shift from sly, cunning, covert manipulative behaviors to more impulsive, erratic and desperate behaviors, all stemming from a loss of control, of his carefully cultivated power. His mask, literally and figuratively, disappears.

It’s impossible to look past the incredible symbolism and irony of the Horcruxes. In his belief that eliminating and eradicating his weaknesses would make him untouchable, that very pursuit ended up being his undoing. With the killing off of the last vestiges of ‘normality’, he seemed to be completely driven by his impulses (or his Id, as Freud would say). If we add ‘death terror’ to this, it would explain why it went as far as Going Full Voldemort and becoming a mass murderer blindly obsessed with a prophecy that merely hinted at his potential defeat. 

Rowling said that Voldemort's boggart would be his own corpse, and I think that makes sense ‒ for Voldemort, that is. His corpse would signify the fact that he could die and thus be defeated, the ultimate loss in the ultimate battle for ultimate power (say ‘ultimate’ one more time!). I think Tom Riddle's boggart would've been a poor man's grave; not only did he die (ugh, lame), but he died with nothing to show for it. 

With all that being said, being a psychopath does not evil make. However, Tom Riddle’s dire need for a sense of self, immersion in the Dark Arts, and the mutilation of his soul are what really made him turn into an unmitigated You-Know-What. The destruction of his soul left a shell of a man driven by dark base emotions: Full Voldemort.

The end.

[princeasimdiya12]

Piqua Falls Part 2

So here is part 2 of the Captain Underpants Gravity Falls AU created by @tornrose24 along with @jackie-sugarskull @nintendogamergirlexe and myself. But we highly encourage any and all fans of CU and GF to participate in this AU either by sharing ideas for characters, potential plotlines or funny memes and fanart. This is an open discussion that all are welcome to join in on. The first part along with the last reblog can be found here.

Ooo yes. Definitely. Absolutely. Weird Al would be a perfect fit for the Several Times boy band and the gang would be hyped to see and interact with him. Since there’s no cloning of any kind, would you like there to be some other abnormal activity that he’d be involved in or him just being himself would be more than enough of the adventure?

And okay, I’ll be fine with Sawyer as Abuelita. I’m not sure where that post was where you made the comparison but I’ll be sure to find it.

I can see Erica wanting to work at the Mystery Shack despite Krupp being an overbearing and ruthless boss. She needs a challenge to test her endurance and mental capabilities. And it would be fun for her to rub it in Krupp’s face when she shows how capable she is. I also have some thoughts on what her character arc would be about. I was thinking that she’d be like a foil to George who is also an academically smart kid who has what it takes to achieve higher standing and seeks challenges that are stimulating to her. She represents George but if he was focused more on himself and what he could accomplish rather than just having fun in the moment and not accessing that potential. And to add on to it, he also has his close friendship with Harold which gives him more reason to have fun and not think of himself as much. Thus, Erica would come off as more detached from other kids her age. She’s friendly and willing to interact with them, but she doesn’t have the same bond as the boys have with each other. It’s something that perplexes her and sometimes she feels jealous that George has something he deems more valuable than his own potential.  (And it would be cool if she was hiding some of her own secrets. Particularly if she conveniently found a way to deal with the monster of the week that no one sees coming. Do you think she’d be part of the same government agency that Rhee and Yewh work at, thus setting her up as a potential Judas? Or is she from another dimension who is trying to keep Piqua Falls safe from the imminent threat of ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’. Because you end up laughing for hours on end if you hear or speak his entire full name.)

I’m really happy that you love the ideas! And I think that would be adorable! I love that Bo and Gooch would get to show off their musical talents. I’m not sure if the Bobeesas would allow it, what if as part of their mansion party, they hold a talent show in their mansion encouraging the youth of Piqua Falls to come and display their musical talents for the town and uppercrust. Bo and Gooch already have their banjo-organ duet set up but they take a drastic turn when they meet Annie Manda Presto (animando presto which is Italian for ‘to be fast in spirit’) a fierce girl with a serious attitude and a protégé opera singer. So while the boys try to get her attention for music advice, they also start to worry about their own music and may end up in conflict over the other’s musical taste. As for Harold, I take it that something happened in which Billy had to uphold his end of his deal with the devil which ended up crushing Harold either because of what Billy had to do or some misunderstanding. The gang tried to take him to the party to get his mind off of it but he was still in a slump. That is, until a mysterious masked boy with an aquatic necklace offers him his hand to dance…

You also make a valid point regarding Anthrope. It’s hard to imagine her being as insane or deadly compared to McGucket. Although her having emotional mood swings would definitely help her in that regard. (It’ll be kinda like Junko going through her personality changes in the last trial right @jackie-sugarskull ?) But if you’re not completely sold on Anthrope for the role, we can always change her for someone else.

That totally makes sense for Melvin. He’d be an established rival of the Shack since he’s trying to win over the public with his mechanical wonders. Made even more wonderous when he finds the second Journal and uses it to his advantage. His reputation in the town is often tarnished thanks to George and Harold publishing comics about Melvin that demean him and paint him as a laughable dweeb (this is one of the few times Krupp is okay with them making comics and even offers to copy them himself so there’s plenty for everyone). I’m thinking that he would end up creating his own monsters of the week in order to terrorize the gang while also trying to find a way to break through and learn of the Shack’s secrets. He’d still have his obsessive crush on Erica and would try to woo her with his smarts and superiority. And Erica returns the gesture with a knuckle sandwich.

Ooo I just had an idea. What if Krupp originally hired Melvin to help him rebuild the machine after he learned from the papers about him being a prodigal genius when it comes to inventing. So he brought him over to the shack with the promise of him being the next Einstein if he could figure out the machine and get it up and running. To Krupp, it actually seems like a miracle since the kid is a whiz at machines. But just because Krupp hires him doesn’t mean that the partnership is easy. Melvin is as insufferable and nitpicky as ever while Krupp doesn’t want him to ask too many questions and wants him to get it done asap. So while Melvin looks around the computer room, she comes across the Author’s loose notes and personal entries where they discuss the machine in vague terms while also referring to the danger of Poopypants as a powerful cosmic entity. Something clicks to Melvin that he becomes drawn to the entity and learns about the other journals which can lead him to personally communicate with him just like the Author did long ago. But Krupp realizes what’s about to happen and doesn’t want a repeat of his past mistake. So he stops Melvin from leaving with this new info by using one of the memory wipes left lying around. Thus, Melvin no longer remembers anything about the portal or him working for Krupp. But he knows  that something big is hiding underneath that primitive shack and he wants to find out what it is. And fortunately, he already knows where to look thanks to a note book page he stashed on himself that reveals the location of Journal 2.

And after that scuffle, Krupp becomes even more secretive regarding the portal and the shack itself. Even if the boys make fun of him for it, no one is learning his secrets on what’s underneath the shack.  Huh, I’m honestly seeing a lot of symbolism regarding the crummy shack that everyone knows and sees followed by the secret portal that no one knows about and how it harbors his darkest secret.

Awww that’ll be adorable. And if they do time travel back, then they may just meet only CU. If CU lived in Piqua Falls his whole life then Krupp wouldn’t have been around at the time. Unless of course he came to visit for a reunion of sorts thus giving the boys the chance to meet both men at the same time.  Aww now I’m imagining CU in his cape and underwear trying to ‘help’ people while freaking them out.

I’m really glad you like that zodiac sign for him. Lol And for the other characters, maybe we can include Lisa’s who’s symbol would be a musical note. Or the emblem belonging to her family which has a musical theme. Billy’s would be a seashell with a star in the middle; the shell representing his heritage and the star to show how his wish inspired him to change in different ways.

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN, TEENS AND ADULTS WHO HAVE NOT YET WATCHED GRAVITY FALLS. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Ahh I see what you mean. Well if necessary we can base them on the villains that are directly from George and Harold’s comics both in the book series and the animated series. ( The Wicked Wedgie Woman, the Egg Salad Manwich, the Turbo Toilet 2000, the 3 Robo-Boogers, Sir Stinks A lot, the Jorts Alien, the Socktopus, Jessica’s evil twin sister Messica etc.). As for Edith, it would make the most sense considering that neither she nor Krupp would willingly throw their frustrations at each other like the Stan twins. To quote Phineas Flynn, “Yes, yes we do.” And in all fairness, it’s hard not to make him suffer considering all the messed up things he does to everyone in every adaptation of CU ever. He brought this on himself and we’re at least thoughtful enough to give him a happy ending in any AU. Provided that he works for it. :p And yeah, Edith isn’t one to hold a grudge so she’d be willing to let Krupp into her life. But she does need a lot of time to readjust to every that happened in her absence along with ensuring that Poopypants isn’t successful in crossing over.

*ominous Latin music plays in the background even louder*

Ahh alrighty. Either way, it still sounds like a great outfit idea. :)

[miyomiikonran]

VOLTRON S7 SPOILERS.

So, I finally watched it all. And tbh I sat to watch it with a lot of negative thoughts I took from this site, but it wasn't "end of Voltron" like I saw some people were announcing. But to the point, firstly what I liked about this season:

- HUNK DEVELOPMENT. FRICKIN FINALLY. 100/10 I'm proud of our kind yellow boi. He deserved it and it was really good. Let him be happy with his family for now. And Shay cus our ship is sailing again <3

- Plot. There was a lot of teamwork, something I like the most. In first half I was a little frustrated with how many problems team had to face, but in the end I think it was a good move. We got to see them struggle and oh my, this question if they're really team and family. MY HEART. They're teens/young adults and been through so much. LET THEM REST AND BE SILLY. Also there was a lot of action and whole fight for Earth was amazing to watch. A little nerve-wrecking in episodes 11-12, but cool. I won't talk much about plot as I'm not an expert but I liked it the most, even more than 1-2 seasons. And as there was less screentime for Keith and finally some more for rest of the cast I'm even more pleased. Sorry, I don't like him that much. He's nice but creators should finally let him step aside and be just leader without gathering all attention to his own story (BoM, his mom or rescuing Shiro for x time). Or let him help other paladins (*cough*LANCE*cough*) like he helped Hunk in this season, that was so suprising and great.

- FAMILIES. YES, OMG. Sam and Carelle (?) Holt were amazing. Their teamwork and love while helping Garrison, yes give us more of that. AND LANCE'S FAMILY! I WAS WAITING FOR THEM SINCE FIRST SEASON! Veronica is gorgeous and you can't tell me otherwise. I love her almost as much as her sweet little brother. Lance's niece and nephew were so cute! The best welcoming ever.

- Lance having more situations to prove his worth. I love when they use his sharpshooter's skills. And when he defended Hunk from Keith's anger? That warmed my heart. Also Hunk looking so kindly and softly at Lance hugging with his family. I love that they started to add more proofs of their friendship. In that scene I just shouted "GO JOIN THEM HUNK" but that's just my headcanon that they're almost parts of each others families.

- Our new four cadets. The one Keith beat in the past is mean but I can handle him. They work very well and the remaining three are fun and useful. I could have them in Atlas permamentely.

- Cosmo is great and I want to pet him. Romelle is also good, if she could only take Allura's place... I can dream right?

- ZETHRID AND EZOR. I SHIP IT AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME OTHERWISE. No one's gonna tell me that one scene was meant with different intention. I'll take it in place of Adashi...

So, here's some main things I liked in this season. Maybe I forgot about something but I can tell at the moment. Now what I didn't like:

*Strong langueage ahead! It was written directely after watching, sorry*

- Overhyping and luring fandom with Adam and Shiro's relationship. It was clear bullshit to raise the hype before season airs. That's not what fandom was hoping for, let's kill all the gays thrope and stuff. I'm sure there're people who adressed this issue better than me.

- What happend with Atlas in last episode. It's the biggest bullshit I have ever seen in this universe. Did Sam Holt build it blindfolded with Garrison's crew? How they could don't know ship is capable of changing it's shape? I could believe in combining machines when they were done by Alteans and Galra, not by humans who were mostly basing on plans Sam Holt bringed with him. It came out of nowhere and I didn't like it. I really liked that ship as I thought it's clever reference of mythological Atlas, the titan who carried the sky so it won't crush the lands, so our Atlas would protect the Earth in similar way as our danger also comes "from above". But no, they decided to give us another motherfucking robot. B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T

- Episode 4, can we pretend this shit doesn't exist? I'm sick of using Lance as comic relief and calling him stupid. Also I was disappointed by Keith's answer why his choice was Lance. Someone please teach this angry boi how to be nice to your teammate because he forgot how after season 3 (I guess that was it?).

- Forced Allurance. Just no. Allura still doesn't deserve our sweet, caring Lance. Now she noticed him? Oh I forgot, Lotor isn't around anymore, so she has to find someone else. Go fuck yourself Allura. Even if in this season she didn't do anything important, other than helping with Shiro's new arm and just being here, those forced moments made me sick. I'm all in for Lance finding his significant other and I would be happy with any person who can appreciate him for who he is and making him happy. Shance, Klance, Hance, Plance, Romellance, whatever you call it, I'm a multishipper. Just no this OP princess, at least until she'll appreciate him for real. What I guess won't happen soon.

- Lance almost dying again because someone thought that he is the best one to have problems with summoning his Lion. REALLY? Allura's less experienced, WHY LANCE? Ugh I'm just wainting for a moment when Voltron's crew will grow bored of thinking of ways to kill Lance. What is this, some sort of competition with Shiro we don't know about?

- Mrs. Admirall or whatever her name was. I JUST WANTED HER TO DIE MOST OF THE TIME. AND I WAS HAPPY SHE FINALLY DID. I understand she was needed for the whole drama, but I hated almost from the beginning. Her overgrown ego and naivety costed lives of who knows how many pilots (including Adam) and citizens. She should be glad her death was so light.

I think that's all, that's enough of this rage. Don't get me wrong, I really liked this season. We can't look at it just in terms of ships, but we can't fully excuse what they did with Adashi, that was not fair in my opinion. But overall it was a good season.

[baconpal]

so heres the long super paper mario post

strap in for why super paper mario is fucking bizarre and why that’s pretty much awesome

gonna be a good amounts of spoilers, so if you’re on desktop then hit that read more, and if your on mobile, then here’s your punishment for using this god awful app

super paper mario is a game that is incredibly difficult to put into words, but it leaves such a powerful, lasting impression on me and i can’t come to say anything first other than I love it so much, and if you havent played the game, please just go do it now, even if you have to pirate or emulate or something, just let yourself play this game. It’s one of those games that I really feel I can just recommend to anybody

it’s difficult to think of where to start with dissecting this thing so i’ll just start with the art since lookin at things is pretty easy

ART/WORLD DESIGN

every world in SPM is completely unique, not just in what type of environment, but it’s art style, and this is premised with the fact that none of these worlds are capable of existing together and are completely separate, and NOT part of a cohesive universe (LOOKIN AT YOU ODYSSEY I STILL THINK YOU LOOK STUPID)

The hub and the first 2 worlds are mostly just slight variants on the same general style of simplistic shapes and colors, with world 1 delving into more linework type aesthetics, and 2 focusing more on impressions and silhouettes, 

world 3 changes this completely with what is obviously an 8 bit kind of style, but instead of jarring over sized pixels, the world is composed of detailed tiles arranged to look like pixel art that imply a more real world, and not a gamey one, 

world 4 focuses on patterns and big patches of color to give the impression of the vast emptiness of both space and the surface of a barren planet, before giving you the “Whoa Zone”, with a striking mix of wire frame and futuristic UI style to it

world 5 takes the idea of nature being crude and simplistic and humanity being sharp, angular, and extreme and flips that on its head, with humanity and the space they occupy being these absolute memes with no sense of depth, and the plant life existing in a system of clean cut caves with futuristic technology and elegant historic values

world 6 simplifies a kind of colored Japanese painting aesthetic, down to the funny cylindrical cloud clusters and brushstroke trees

world 7 depicts what is essentially hell (yes there’s hell in this game keep your pants on) as a squarish blur of bright greens and warm reds and purples, and depicts heaven as fluffy land of clouds and Greek temples

and lastly, world 8 is inverted greyscale, where light is black and darkness is white, its simplistic and striking and i couldn’t think of a better style for the final area of a game so focused on the concept of light and dark

MUSIC

I’ll just try and keep it simple, the musics fucking cash money

The game makes great use of motifs when it needs to, where specific themes and instruments are used in other songs to suggest relationships and put battles and travels into perspective

And when it ISNT doing that, it’s just fucking funky stuff, with a weird trend of BOING and PLOP and SPLISH noises in the percussion because fuck you i guess

There’s a lot of good songs that do lots of interesting things, any of the like 5 final battle songs are great things to point to, but i’ll just go ahead and say the main theme of world 8 “Castle Bleck” is one of my favorites that isn’t super highly rated. It brings in the types of instruments that have been associated with the villain the entire game, but also throws in 2 very important things; a sudden triumphant burst of almost JRPG styled chiptune that pushes away the constantly building tension, which is then followed by the sound of a clock ticking, which is a musical motif only present in the songs “Memory” and “Promise” which is played whenever the memories of the player’s little guide thing and the main villain’s past lives together are alluded to. This one song holds a lot of weight, as well as simply being a fucking cool song.

GAMEPLAY

This is, sadly, the one place I’ll not mince any words and say the gameplay is not amazing by any standard, it’s pretty much a classic mario game if it had RPG stats, items, and random abilities granted through the character and partner systems. The 3D flipping mechanic is nothing astounding, though it is very interesting to see how worlds are constructed

One of the biggest flaws people will mark the game for in its gameplay is that it’s tedious, and while I have to agree, that’s because I’ve already played the game before, and the tedium only comes from not being completely invested in the experience anymore. I’ll get some specific examples in a bit, but there’s a few cases of “tedium” that i believe are 100% intentional and drive the story in an interesting way

STORY/WRITING/GAME DESIGN

Thats a fuckin broad section, but its pretty much everything else i have to say on the game, and where the most spoilers and random praise is gonna be

I’m not actually gonna talk about the whole story, more just the strong parts of it, under the assumption you’ve already played it or understand a story as simple as “villain wants to destroy world, hero wants that to not happen”

The writing and characters are just flawless, everyone is fun to be around, especially the bad guys, who you see more antics of than your own party. There’s goofy running plotlines about O’chunks and mimi essentially getting grounded and being forced to write essays about why they fucked up at beating mario, and big stinky brother dimentio teasting and bullying them and sneaking them out to do his bidding when The big Count Bleck is away

The game is full of referential humor to not just mario itself but all kinds of games, there’s skeletons in hell who are clearly just Marios from the mainline games who died in stupid ways, there’s an actual dragon quest turn based boss battle in hell too, and chapter 3 has an otaku villain who tried to get with peach in a simulated visual novel

but the humor exists not just in references, but in simple good scenarios, with things like “Having a game show in a bathroom when everyone's life is at stake” and “locating an ancient manuscript to use as toilet paper” or “flying through black holes to find a convenience store” and things of that nature

It also interacts with the players emotions in many interesting ways, one of the more lauded being chapter 2-3, where mario is forced into working off a massive debt of fictional money, and is required to do hard, boring labor. There isn’t anyway to avoid doing both the hitting a block 100 times and the running on a treadmill for a few minutes thing, but the constant feeling of “there has to be a faster way to do this” drives the player to prod around, find the secrets, and slowly discover how to break the system wide open and get to the end, and i love it for that

This entire game is some sort of bait and switch, to put it simply, while it’s already a bit of a departure from both mario itself and the paper series, the first 5 worlds are pretty fucking tame stuff, other than the void, which is a giant black and purple spot that sits in the sky, always, every single world has the void growing in its sky, and it does grow, every chapter it gets bigger and bigger and takes up the sky, but where this truly culminates into the “switch” part is chapter 6, which starts itself by presenting you with the most TEDIUS sounding chapter possible, fight 100 enemies in a row, and nothing else, and for 25 straight fights, that is all it is, so you’ve locked yourself into it at this point, you know whats up, but the void in the background begins to grow to the point of being the entire fucking background, and every enemy you face speaks as if they know they’re all going to die, and by the 30th fight, one of the villains comes to stall for time as the void completely swallows the world, and the party is sent back to the hub. When they decide to go back in to world 6, its empty, the entire world is a white void with a single black line making up the ground, and colorless destroyed structures occasionally peaking out of the ground.

and you walk on this white void for so long and you just feel nothing but regret and fear and no matter how fast you make yourself go you feel like you’ll never find anything, but you do eventually get your plot item and escape

then, Dimentio, one of the villains you’ve seen the least of, appears in the hub world, the safest place in the universe, and kills mario

he just fucking kills him

he puts mario in a box and fills the box with explosions and mario fucking dies and goes to hell because fuck you mario

then you go through all of chapter 7 just to escape hell (called the Underwhere cus how could we possibly be allowed to take hell seriously) and join up with your full party before confronting the final world, which i’ve already stated i just love the design off

the game just takes the comfortable ride you’re on and throws it into the fucking sun and burns you alive and i love it so much, even the very end of the game doesnt let up, where the main villain is overtaken by that absolute madman Dimentio (Whose name is a play on both Dimension and dementia), who clearly was powerful enough to have done the whole “ending of the world” himself, but did it this way for the theatrics of it

there’s a lot i could still say about the game, but this post is absolute rambling and its 2 in the morning but as usual, i just wanted to shit my thoughts onto the internet to people could maybe learn somethin about either the game or me and how i think and look at and respond to stuff, and as always, anybody who read this whole thing is cool and i love you a whole heck of a lot

[zenlesszonezero]

[vjdarkworld]

The Witcher 3 Review (NO SPOILERS)

Score: Recommended, for people that enjoy Storytelling

Best:

Storytelling

Adult content

Difficult Choices

Embodiment of Polish folklore

Quests

Good:

VisualsOnce you have a lot of good tools to use, gameplay is funExploration and Open World

Observations:

Lots of tools but all singular use, instead of few tools with dynamic usage.

Bad:

“Slavic jank”

Requires playing of Witcher 1&2 OR read the books

Performance

Best:

Storytelling

This not only includes how the stories unfold, but as well the characters and world they inhabit.

One word to describe it would be believability. Of course, it’s fantasy but the way standard fantasy things would be handled is done well due to the characters.

A plot is a series of character interactions, so ultimately a story is only as good as the characters it has. Truly what sells the world is how the characters interpret it, and they all have differing viewpoints. Some take the Dark Fantasy world seriously, others find it a chance for a Fun Adventure, and most attempt to drink their sorrows away. But my personal favorite interacts in the series is between Geralt and his friends.

This is where it becomes real for me, relationships. Throughout Geralt’s adventures he meets many people. He doesn’t get along with most, but there are some he actually befriends. And even though nearly all his friends are eccentric which contrast the stoic white wolf, he still has long and ongoing friendships with em. As the director of the game said, “friends are the backbone of your life” (he was talking about life not the witcher but oddly enough it connects to the witcher for me) and that is exemplified by Geralt.

All in all, the relationships between the characters make the storytelling real.

Adult content

While other games have sex in it, The Witcher series has been able to portray sex for what it is…. Sex. Bioware has the lovely dovey sex after you Romance them, but in the Witcher it’s different and more Realistic. Adults have sex for various reasons and it’s not always romantic. Most of the time it’s just for the act itself, having a single fling cus sex is Fun.

Since witchers shoot blanks they have the stereotype of being promiscuous. It’s up to the player (no pun intended) if they will let Geralt succumb to Hook Up Culture, or actually stay in a dedicated monogamous relationship.

Something like this just isn’t address in any other mainstream RPG.

Other serious topics are brought up as well related to sexual violence and racism. They are all handled well due to one simple theme present with each situation. That is the fact that you can’t be neutral, you have to pick a side.

 Difficult Choices

It’s funny cus the white wolf almost embodies the “grey area” of neutrality that generally serious RPG fans walk the line of. That the player will be understanding for all Characters and trying to figure out a solution. But most situations aren’t like this realistically. Theoretically sure you can be critical of Both Sides, but in practice you HAVE to pick a side. Or maybe you don’t pick a side and “stay neutral” which can be the worst option cus you could be letting bad stuff happen that you could of prevented. This is why when choices pop up for Geralt, it’s pretty serious. Especially cus the effects of them happen way later in the game before you realized what you did wrong.

These choices impact the fates of certain characters, among other things. Choose wisely, or you may not be happy with what you did.

 Embodiment of Polish folklore

I’m no expert in Polish culture, or of ye’ old slavic and pagan mythology, but the entire game reeks of something being different. It just doesn’t seem like your typical Tolkien fantasy. There’s a unique twist that is clearly the result of the entire game being developed in Poland, thus polish culture shining bright within it.

Some people joke that the Witcher series is Poland’s main export, but atleast for entertainment it seems quite true. It seems like a major group effort from creative minds of Poland, banding together to present their folklore to world. Major props and respect to the CD PROJEKT RED team!

 Quests

Quests are designed like episodic content. For side quests and hunter contracts, they all tell a good standalone story from start to finish of the quest. Sometimes quests interconnect too, reference each other, presenting how much the world is connected. It makes doing the quests quite addicting cus you want to see what’s going to happen next in the quest, and then when you finish it you want another good story so you start another one. It’s almost like bingewatching a tv show. Having good stories for the quests makes even the most mundane tasks more appealing too. Trying to tell a story… WHAT A CONCEPT!

 Good:

Visuals

They are pretty nice looking if you got the Specs for it. Sometimes regular real lofe animals like cats and dogs look weird but overall its good. Landscapes pretty, monsters spooky, humans all raggedy. The aesthetic sells the world quite nicely.

 Once you have a lot of good tools to use, combat is fun

When starting out the game, you have limited options for combat. But through the course of the game, gaining abilities, new gear, etc etc, gives Geralt more tools to play around with. This is when the game opens up and you can mess around a bit. The white wolf can get pretty OP too if you play your cards right. To which if you think the game is too easy, you can always play on higher difficulties.

 Observations:

Lots of tools but all singular use, instead of few tools with dynamic usage.

Due to how alchemy and signs work, signs, oils, potions and decoctions generally have only a Specific situation use. Some are more versatile, but most times you will be looking up the Bestiary to figure out what tools to use.

On one hand this kinda makes the combat seem flat, cus of the limited options you can do, BUT thematically it makes sense why. It makes sense why it’s like this for a hunter of monsters, there’s a lot of monsters and they all have different weaknesses so it makes sense as to why the design is like this.

On top of that, it’s kind of deceptive cus you CAN experiment but only when you have a LOT of the tools and you know what all their purposes are. It’s a barrier, but you can get over it.

But still, in the end the gameplay still isn’t as dynamic as other combat systems which is a shame in my opinion.

 Exploration and Open World

Points of interest are labeled on the map. You get good loot and fight monsters at these points most of the time. It doesn’t truly make the game world feel Alive necessarily, it just seems more like extra stuff to do. I appreciate the effort of given the player stuff to do if they completed quests and are bored, and you get neat goodies from going these places but it’s really just There.

 Bad:

“Slavic jank”

There’s a bit of a joke about games made in slavic related areas. They are often associated with janky games, but games with so much dedication behind them that even though they are janky it’s so unique that it’s fun. Something like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for example. This phenomena is due to how the gamers in these territories are completely out of the typical western Triple A bubble. And generally dedicate their time to old CRPGs, which causes them to grow a fondness for more Detailed and Dense design instead of Simple and Elegant. This isn’t a bad thing, and this type of thing can be seen in The Witcher series, where it’s both Triple A BUT has that old school CRPG style to it.

All that is good in my opinion…. But I have to be honest and say that the gameplay can be too janky at times. Movement in general feels weird with its velocity and acceleration. Roach controls awkwardly and doesn’t feel like a horse, more like you’re on something sliding around. When you run into other animals or enemies on Roach you just push them away and not run them over.

Also, for some reason the controls completely change when in combat mode and you can’t control at all when combat mode happens. This causes awkwardness where you are not moving the same way as before, as in… an enemy triggers you to go into combat mode but they are too far away for you to hurt so you are stuck moving around weird. It’s just an odd system, which I prefer to have a full range of movement and attacks, not being arbitrarily pushed into combat mode.

Also, the inventory is a bit confusing to navigate especially if you are trying to find a specific item hidden in the Other tab.

The whole character upgrade screen too is not clear cus there’s clearly abilities that are better than others WHEN you actually know their potential, but unless you’re looking up guides and the wiki you won’t really know which are the good ones to actually invest in.

All these little things that kind of ruin the “game feel” make people not want to play it past a couple hours cus they think the game is “janky” anddd the game is actually kinda janky. I have to admit it, can’t lie. There’s other open world games that have better movement overall, and I wish that this game did.

 Requires playing of Witcher 1&2 OR read the books

Now you may wonder, what’s so bad about that? Well, I was being critical about this games jankiness, but really it’s not in the slightest as janky as Witcher 1. Witcher 2 isn’t as much janky, but Witcher 3 improved on a lot of Witcher 2’s problems so Witcher 3 is in fact the least janky.

Now it would be a hard sell to say “you need to go through 50+ hours of the previous installments to play this?” BUT if the other installments were as polished as this than it wouldn’t be as much of a problem… But it’s like I can’t tell someone “Oh you have to play through these janky games to play this game, don’t worry it’s worth it bro” cus that’s disrespecting their intelligence AND worst of all their time. Not everyone has time to look play through decent games to get to an Amazing game just so they can understand the story… which is sad.

Cus don’t get me wrong, I adore Witcher 1 more than most, but I can’t lie and say it’s worth “slogging” through the awkward gameplay to see the amazing story unfold down the road.

Why? Even if it’s a unique OK… there are better games to play that are more than just OK.

And to the book point, you shouldn’t need to read a book series before playing a videogame, the entertainment should be as singular as possible. The witcher videogames too have a different storyline than the books anyways, so it’s a moot point of them being in the same continuity and being “required”… even though they technically can help if you didn’t play the other games. Still not fair though, so nah, just nah.

 Performance

You need to make sure you have a midrange build atleast so you can run the game. But man do the frames drop in cities. Back on my old-midrange build I could play at around 50-60fps outside of Novigrad… but IN Novigrad I had 10-20fps due to NPCs and who knows what else. Also just some areas would lag on that build regardless if something was at low or medium. Very finnicky. I think by now with all the patches and optimization it’s probably better buuut I can’t say the game is well optimized. It’s serviceable with a good build… but ya get kinda screwed if you don’t and that’s a shame.