#of course i don't mean FIXING it. there is no one way linear Fix

[bravevolunteer]

sorry. thought about a healing arc michael getting to figure out Who He Is beyond his trauma, beyond absolving himself and putting an end to what william started, beyond the constant fox and rabbit chase, realizing that he does not have to be forever tied to his past and he is allowed to be something other than a constant reflection of it, and now i'm incapacitated

[avelera]

A few thoughts on writerly endurance, word count, how to increase it and why you might want to

So over the last few months I've had, bar none, the highest word count I've ever produced as a writer over the course of (*checks watch*) 23 years of writing, on and off. This was after a pretty long dry spell brought on, most likely, from stress from current events and playing way too much Sims 4.

No one is more shocked by this than me. Mostly the word count lately has been me just trying to outrun the Doubts that set in if I pause for too long. Let's hope I can stay ahead, because I feel like garbage when I haven't written in a long time. Mostly, I just thank Calliope every day where I've got something to write and the urge doesn't leave me.

But this crazy-ass word count has led to a few people commenting on it so I want to give some scattered, not exactly linear tips on how to reach a longer word count and why you might want to do so as a writer.

1 ) Learning to write more is, in my mind, a matter of endurance with an almost 1-to-1 correlation with the sort of training one would do to become a long distance runner. No one is born with the ability. It takes practice. Expecting to be able to do it without practice is as ridiculous as expecting to be able to sit down at the piano if you've never played it before and bang out a tune. Be gentle with yourself.

2 ) The incentive to learning to increase your word count is to learn how to cut and edit more viciously. Which sounds odd. And I actually don't recommend deleting what you write, I recommend a discard document even for phrases as small as half a sentence, because you never know when you got it right the first time and if you (like me) do track word count as an accomplishment, it's good to see how much work you actually did at the end of the day.

3 ) But really, you need* (*if you so choose) to learn how to write 100 words easily, and then 1,000 words, and then 10,000 words because at some point, you might realize your story has gone off track and hit a wall and the only way to fix it is to go back 50 words, or 500 words, or 5,000 words and if you nearly killed yourself to write that much, you might be reluctant to remove it (to your discard doc), even if failing to do so will mean the whole story dies. The less effort it takes to write a lot, the more likely (if you're like me) that you'll be able remove the things that need to be removed without getting too possessive of them because they were so hard to write in the first place.

4 ) Now, the one reason to not just increase word count for the sake of word count is that short pieces actually, pound for pound, tend to get more attention because they represent less of a commitment for an audience. Long fics might have more comments, but if you broke down word count-to-feedback ratio, most one shots do a lot better. So don't negatively compare a short fic to a long fic just because it has more comments. Short fics and one shots can be very rewarding. But, as said in point 3, learning to write a lot means you can be more precise with removing extra stuff. For me, at least, writing something short is harder and takes a lot longer than writing something long. Even this post would probably be more successful if I could boil it down to a few bullet points, but that would take 10x more time and energy for me than just writing my thoughts out linearly without boiling them down to the most salient points.

5 ) For me, learning to write a lot had a lot to do with learning to trust my initial instincts. I've heard runners say the hardest part of learning to run was learning to stop stopping themselves. They said their own bodies held them back until they trained themselves to work with their bodies. I think writing is similar.

We have our internal editor, many people have heard of that, the voice that tries to edit a piece before it's done. That's worth noting if you haven't heard of it: don't try to edit while you're writing. Editing is for when your story or at least your chapter draft is done. Because you can't really see what needs to be fixed until you have the whole picture before you. It's like trying to color in the lines before you've actually drawn the lines of a picture.

But also consider this: you're not going to learn to write better than you already have in the .5 seconds while you're thinking about what to say next. Go with your first instincts. You've been reading, watching, and otherwise consuming stories for most of your life. You've been writing for some significant period of it too. You know everything you need to know, that you can possibly know to write the story in front of you right now. That's not going to change if you agonize over that next sentence for hours or weeks. You're not going to get better in that time without actually writing. And if you do, most likely you'll want to write something else because your interests and skills will have shifted and the story in front of you will die in that time. The best way to get better? Write and finish the story in front of you. There really is no comparison.

So the best thing you can do is write the next line that first appears in your head. Don't doubt yourself. Your brain knows what it's doing. Trust yourself. You know what comes next. And maybe you'll get to the end and realize it wasn't the right line. Well, then you can edit and fix it. And you'll have a much clearer idea of how to do that, of what needs to change at the end than you'll ever have in the moment. In the moment you need to stop fighting your own body and brain. Trust yourself. You know how to tell a story. You know what the next line will be if you just listen and don't edit it before it exists.

6 ) It's going to take practice. But writing 50 kind a crappy 100 word drabbles in under 15 minutes is going to teach you a lot more than staring at the blank document of your magnum opus novel that you haven't written a word for. Particularly, writing that many drabbles is going to help you with point 5: trusting yourself to know what the next sentences will be.

7 ) Don't bite off more than you can chew. If writing 100 words exhausts you, don't plot out a 100,000 word story. You're not there yet. You're training for a 5k and that's a marathon. You need to build to it and you need to be gentle with yourself about the fact that 100,000 words is a serious amount of effort and it would be as absurd to expect of yourself as expecting someone working up to a 5k to run a marathon without training first. Doesn't mean you shouldn't run every day though, or run when you can.

8 ) Random note but: stop checking your word count while you're writing. Check the word count when the section is done. I've stopped checking word count unless I'm looking to see how close I am to having a chapter's worth of content ready to post, I don't check it mid-scene anymore, only when I feel I've got something to share. I think it helps with both avoiding discouragement and feeling like you're "done" before you've actually finished anything and then resting on your laurels.

[sullina]

hey

are you someone who would like to write but can't seem to get started? Despite being at no loss of ideas?

Here's a tip. Especially for your first work and especially the first draft.

forget originality

that sounds mean now, but listen: every concept imaginable has been done by someone before. There will always be unoriginal concepts in every single work.

But that doesn't make these concepts bad

Because what actually matters is how you use them.

So if you're trying to write something, one of the best first steps you can take is probably just getting laid out what you want to write. Like, what concepts do you want in your work? What things did you like from other works? What characters from other works do you like, and why?

For your very first draft, when you're just starting out, it's perfectly fine to borrow building blocks from others.

Because here's a little secret: unless you're copying one single media word for word, those building blocks will rarely look the same after you've written down your idea and trying to fit everything together.

it's 100% fair to take concepts from other works and use them in your own writing. Because over the course of actually writing your own story, you will also make those borrowed concepts your own.

Sure, it's been done before...

but no one's done it like you yet.

And here's a second tip: if an idea you had or concept you like doesn't work for the thing you're writing anymore, it's okay to let go.

You don't have to throw it out completely, but maybe put it on the shelf for now. Once you're further along with your writing, you might just see the perfect opportunity to reintroduce it in a new way.

I wouldn't call myself an experienced writer just yet, but if there's one thing I've learned already, it's that crafting a story is NOT a straight line. There's bumps and sometimes you go in circles, and then there might be a point where you have an absolute genius idea or you realize that something you already wrote is an amazing setup for this next thing.

So it's not linear. At all. But you have to keep going.

Not everything you write is gonna make it into the final work, but it's still important that you write it. Because you can't make a thing without going through the process of making it. Fails and dropped ideas are as much part of this process as every success and genius idea.

And one final tip for you. Choose a medium to write in that you actively like doing, and doing a lot. By this i mean: writing on your computer is convenient for sure, but it's not the only way to write.

I've found that I fucking love writing by hand with a fountain pen, and it's something that I can do for hours at a time. And don't get me wrong, I do like typing on a computer and I'm not half bad at it, but going back to fix typos? Super annoying. it's fine if I'm making a short tumblr post like this (though i probably have a different definition of "short" than most people), but the outline of my current work in progress is almost 80 pages now. if that were digital, it would probably be more like... 40 pages or something, depending on the font and size, but my point is that digital typing, while convenient, is also annoying to me, personally.

And, ironically, also too quick. I like to think as I write and with digital typing, i have to focus too much on actually typing, but when I'm handwriting, i don't have that problem. I can go relatively quick and it's not like I don't make typos while handwriting, but crossing out one letter and putting the correct one over it is much faster than having to backspace and re-write an entire word (I could use the arrow keys but like. who has the damn time. too fiddly.)

My point here is not that digital writing is terrible and sucks, my point is that if you're gonna write, then you're gonna be doing the action of writing a whole damn lot, so make sure you can do it as comfortably as possible. For me, that's handwriting, for you, it might not be.

...if there's anyone who WILL spring for handwriting though, let me give you one final piece of advice: it might be wise to not go for pretty notebooks, for fear of "ruining" them. I knew this from myself already, so i instead went for regular notebooks, the kind that i used to use for school. The paper is good quality and the fountain pen that I have feels so nice when writing on it. You might think "but that's just small stuff!" and yeah it is, but small stuff can quickly become very very big stuff if it's building up over months or years.

[scabopolis]

It has been a mighty, mighty, minute since I've tried to host a fic writing challenge, but why not??? What's old is new again, and yadda yadda yadda. Announcing a new challenge: The Logan & Veronica: New Year, New Fic Writing Fest!

We’ll start writing in the first month of the year, and then posting the first week of February. New year! New fic! 

Posting Dates: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 through Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Fic! Fan art! Manips! Playlists! Headcanons! Lists of fic recommendations! We want it all!

To kickoff the first year of this challenge, I thought it'd be fun if we take inspiration from some of the fandom's greatest hits, that is, fics with the most amount of kudos over on AO3.

Please note: I have picked key elements of some of the most kudos'd fics EVER (according to AO3) to inspire these prompts. If you want to do an actual, explicit remix of one of these fics, it's fandom best practice to reach out to the author in advance. Any questions about that distinction? Just send me an ask or a message!

Most importantly: tag everything #2023 LV New Year in the first five tags so all those who love these two idiots can see and track the content. You can also post in the 2023 LV New Year challenge category on AO3.

No time to create? Boy, do I have a suggestion for you! Sometimes fics considered "old" by the fandom can drop off the radar. Why not take the time this week to dole out kudos and/or comments to some older but much loved fics?

Canon divergence, fics inspired by universes you've already created, long one-shots, new multichapters that incorporate each plot - all fic writing formats that are completely on the table!

Day 1: Market Fic - inspired by "A Strange New Story Every Time" by gyzym - Farmer's market? Specialty food store? Mini-market? So many markets...so many possibilities.

Day 2: Non-Linear Storytelling - inspired by "Slipstream" by @cheshirecatstrut. - Any way of telling a story where the events are not told in complete chronological order.

Day 3: Hurt/Comfort and/or Domesticity inspired by "With Me" by @bryrosea and "Same Old Song" by @susanmichelin - You can treat these as two separate prompts, or, as both of these fics do in an expert manner, incorporate them together

Day 4: Epistolary inspired by "Three Emails Sent Across Continents (And Possible Five Text Messages)" by Care and "Wingspan" by @theawkwardterrier - Journals, letters, texts, etc. They can provide the full text or simply feature as one component.

Day 5: Lawyer!Veronica inspired by "A Better Claim" by @best-laid-plaids - She spent all that time and energy on getting that degree - it seems a shame we fic writers don't put it to good use!

Day 6: "I love a man in uniform" inspired by "Metal Under Tension" by @machawicket - Not saying it has to be a military uniform...though that option is, of course, there.

Day 7: s1 canon fix-it or s1 canon divergence inspired by "Sometimes" by @mysilverylining and "Time, Make it Go Faster or Just Rewind" by @kmd0107 - We're all in agreement that s1 is the most complete season of this show, correct? That doesn't mean that the what-if possibilities are in any way limited, though!

So, What are the rules? There aren't really any, but in summation:

Look at the prompts for each day.

Post them on tumblr or AO3.

Tag them (on Tumblr and/or AO3) with #2023 LV New Year and/or add to the AO3 collection.

So, 2! 4! 6! 8! reblog this post and then create! 

[beardedmrbean]

I have to both agree an disagree with you and anon on the porn thing, I agree that porn has warped peoples views on sex and body parts to an extent but viewing porn doesn’t inherently make one doubt themselves nor does it cause ill effects, that is a natural reaction to worries of inadequacy that’ve been around for millennia it’s sadly something that is difficult to work through no matter one’s assets, I also believe it’s natural for young teens to explore porn of course absolutely anonymously and without any deeper interaction, we all developed sexual urges as teens in some amount (of course we all keep it hush hush as is proper social courtesy) and it’s best to deal with those urges in a safe and healthy manner but again as I stated some porn has warped people’s perception of sex in fact the industry has an annoying trend towards stereotyping, I believe though these things are a case by case basis not all porn is bad but it’s not all good either as is with many things it is exhaustingly never as easy an simple as we’d wish it were.

Also if I’ve misinterpreted your post I apologize and thank you for taking the time to read my ask.

No apologies needed for much of anything, I'm shockingly difficult to upset and even if you misinterpreted things, you're coming in in a very polite way so no need to even consider fussing about it, if you were being a jerk I'd answer totally differently.

Short answer/summary at the end.

_____________

I wind up confusing people on here a lot because I'm fairly good at leaving wiggle room for myself, for example.

"can do"

Over the years I've developed the skill of avoiding blanket statements as much as possible, kept me out of trouble a lot, and also I agree with you it doesn't get everyone.

all that stuff where you say it doesn't inherently XYZ, be what I said too

Still don't think a 14 year old should be accessing porn, be nice for kids to just be themselves and all that for as long as possible and maybe get some comprehensive sex ed in there focused on the mechanics of it all, porn is terrible for that

I also know it's not going to happen, don't think there's been a time in history where it has, accessing some form of pornography be it peeping tom stuff or those pictures naughtius maximus drew on the parchment he keeps under his bed.

Been different things with all it though.

Ancient Greeks associated a large dong with being oafish and slow, another weird factoid learned while trying to answer a question I had in my mind (can it be done and how, you'll see what I mean) was when the Levant region of western Asia was under Hellenistic (Greek) rule there was a trend among some of the men to attempt to get their foreskins to grow back because they wanted to look "greek" devices they used then are very similar to what's available today.

So ya all that can create body image issues.

I get very jumbled when i start in on these responses because my brain doesn't always go in a linear fashion so I scroll up and add something when it hits my head and it may make other things a bit confusing, sorry bout that. ____________

Short answer: Ya I agree with most of what you said, since most of it was what I said just you used more words.

Porn bit is where we may diverge but I respect your opinion, nobody needs to agree with everything from everyone else.

That would be boring.

Again i hope this makes sense, I'm very aware of how messy my mental process can be and I can't fix it tried for years so disclaimers abound.

[theaccursedninth]

How do you think the rest of the MCU would have went if Malekith had killed Emily on Sakaar?

Oh geez...I don't know. Meeting and bonding with Emily was such a turning point for his character. It is possible he would've just pushed aside all the little Time Lord implications about her for the time being, still running high in survival mode. I think he would've found a way to corner Thor--probably failing the first time but later observing him enough to find a weak point and use that to threaten him. Let's say it works. Let's say he gets off Sakaar. While I don't think he'd succeed in killing Thor or Loki (at least not before Thor can subdue him) I do think Thor intends to bring him back to Asgard for punishment but then ofc Asgard is destroyed...which may be when Malekith can finally get away. I don't think he cares much for Hela and all of that. Although it is traumatizing to see this empire he held so much animosity for gone before he can do anything himself.

I think eventually, once the adrenaline wears off, all those little pieces Emily told him finally click into place and leave him with an overwhelming renewed sense of loneliness...and desperate hope. She was a Time Lord. She found her way into his Universe. That means there's a way OUT.

I haven't watched any of the MCU movies in years, so I don't remember all the linear details but I am damn sure at some point, Malekith would hear of the Infinity Stones. I think he'd want them for himself and would fight tooth and nail against the Avengers/Thanos to get them. He was going to destroy this Universe anyway. It was a mistake, so who cares what happens now?

The ultimate question though...is if he succeeds, or does he die trying? And who dies trying to get in his way?

I maintain Malekith is a fixed point in Time and would therefore be unaffected by the Snap, if Thanos made it that far. Malekith is the one who set this Universe on its course, who will connect his old Universe with this one, albeit a different version of him. Rose Tyler won't find her happy ending without this world existing...

I need to go back and reexamine the MCU Timeline to properly answer this, but I do think the above is roughly what would happen...

...there's also one other possibility depending on his headspace. It's possible he'd make a trade with the Red Skull and bring Emily back. He owes her nothing, but he did take her life, and technically speaking...she is the proper last of the Time Lords in this universe. He isn't so far gone as to not recognize that.

[spinningbuster98]

And here we finally have our first Ashley escort section!

If you're expecting me to bitch...I won't!

She's nowhere near as bad as people make her out to be! Oh sure character-wise she's a cardboard cutout, this is one area where I will absolutely concede that the Remake did a far better job. But gameplay wise? Her AI is actually very responsive!

First off you can tell her to stay put at one spot, so if you know some place where you know enemies won't spawn you can put her there while you clear the area. This won't always be possible of course but even then, Ashley is smarter than she lets on

First off, every time you point a gun she will immediately either run behind Leon or duck out of the way, so if you accidentally kill her that's gonna be on you. Every other time she diligently follows you around with no issue. She can die very quickly, but you can replenish her health with your own healing items, even upgrade her max health like you can with Leon's

There are also only roughly 4 sections with her in total and, excluding this first one which lasts until the end of Chapter 3-1, every other only lasts about 20 minutes, so she's only gonna be present for about 30% of the whole game. Yeah she's kind of annoying, and the game doesn't really benefit from having her around, but she's by no means a deal breaker

And while we're at it let's delve into Resident Evil 4's gameplay itself shall we?

Now I'm not a big RE fan as a whole, but even I'm aware of the divide caused by this game for many, of how it essentially forever altered not only the series' identity but also horror as a whole.

No more fixed camera angles, no more pre rendered backgrounds, no more limited resources, no more non-linear design, no more having to carefully maneuver around enemies to avoid confrontation in order to save up on ammo and stuff. This game is very action focused, you're shooting stuff all the time, it drowns you in ammo, it's very linear, it's pretty much the opposite of classic RE in almost every way, leading to plenty of older fans to call this the game that essentially killed the series

...and I mean....they're not wrong? I know that these types of fans tend to get a bad rep in all kinds of fandoms, sometimes for good reasons as sometimes people can just be straight up dicks, but there's nothing inherently wrong with this general sentiment: you like a series due to a variety of elements which are unique to it. If those elements are gone you no longer enjoy it. Simple as that. Some cry "Oh but you just don't accept change!" but the truth is that one must first consider a specific change to be good before they can accept it

Despite this however...I can't fully agree with this sentiment myself, despite sympathising with it

It's often said that RE4 is not a horrot game, just an action game.

And it's true that this game is not a traditional Survival Horror game due to the aforementioned reasons. But I can't call thos just an action game because, even ignoring what I said about this game's very horror-like atmosphere, visual design and ost last time, there are a bunch of design elements that simply don't make much sense for a pure action game but do for a horror one

Yes this game revolutionized third person shooting in terms of precision and camera controls, not to mention that it features literal over the top melee attacks you can perform after stunning an enemy by shooting them in their weak points

But at the same time it also has old-school tank controls. They're snappier than in the classic games, but this still means you can't freely outmaneuver your enemies, creating tension that way

You also can't move while aiming, just like in the older games. You are pinned to the spot while trying to aim for enemy weak points, putting you in a vulnerable position if other enemies were to flank you in the meantime. While the aiming itself is precise, Leon's hands slightly tremble, forcing you to be careful, throwing you into a potential panic should you find yourself surrounded by enemies on all sides and you don't have the nerve to properly steady yourself. You are also completely immobile while reloading weapons. In the older games you could do this from the pause menu but here it HAS to be during gameplay and it may take a second or to, forcing you to be mindful of when and where you reload during a conflict. Weapons like the shotgun even have noticeable wind up after each shot which, again, anchors you to the spot for a second each time, putting you at risk of getting hit. Leon can die pretty easily here, a single hit can fell over half of your healthbar. You have healing items of course, but you nevertheless need to be careful

The over the shoulder camera may be criticized by older fans....but if you think about it it serves a very similar purpose to the old fixed camera angles: those obscured your view creating a sense of dread due to not knowing if you were gonna run into a zombie when passing the next camera angle.

While the over the shoulder camera is not as cinematic as the old one, people seem to forget that, unlike most other games inspired by RE4, you can't freely move this camera, only slightly pan it to the sides, otherwise you can only see what is strictly ahead of you. If you want to see what's behind you you have to turn around, which takes a second, a second that enemies may use to hit you during the animation. This is all 100% purposeful, as it creates very obvious blind spots for you that you have to be mindful of and that help create this overall sense of tension and paranoia

People say that RE4 is not scary, tense at most. I argue that fear is a very subjective thing that varies on the person. My first few playthroughs of RE4 gave me very similar feelings to my first times playing RE1-2-3. In those games I was afraid of all the zombies that I couldn't directly see because of the camera, with each encounter being tense due to tank controls and limited resources. In RE4 I was paranoid that at any second the game might spring yet another trap at me and flood a room with enemies, enemies that I couldn't always keep track of as they'd often surround me, coming from my blindspots, each encounter being tense because of needing to stop for a few seconds in the middle of a fight to take aim and fire, which is a risk because enemies can and will try to attack you from all directions as you're doing this.

Now of course nowadays RE4 is mostly no longer scary to me. But that's mostly because I've played this game about 20 times and I've grown accustomed to all of its tricks. Similarily Nemesis in OG RE3 was scary the first few times, but now I know how to take him on, that's normal. The only RE games that keep being scary to me even now are the OG RE1 and its Remake, mostly due to the whole haunted Mansion setup being inherently creepier to me and because they're far harder games than the rest I think

Perhaps no other section in the game makes any of this clearer than the dreaded Cabin Section at the end of this Chapter

Leon and Luis (Ashley thankfully locks herself in a closet so you don't have to worry about her for once) against an infinite horde of Ganados as they storm the tiny cabin, coming from all sides. There's barely any space to maneuver yourself, they keep coming without stopping, your ammo dwindles little by little. You will panic, you won't know exactly what to do, you'll screw up as you're being mercilessly overwhelmed from all sides, you'll dread ever having to redo this part....yet I can't absolutely say it's badly designed. They will only give up after a while, after which you'll finally breathe a sigh of relief as the danger is finally over...for now

Peak Resident Evil 4

Also Luis does this if you shoot him too many times

[cugzarui]

thinking about "two wrongs don't make a right" while studying math and i think i might be onto something

see the thing is, sometimes two wrongs do make a right. for example: at one point while i was ignoring my cousin, she poured water on my head. i - in retaliation - poured some water on her as well and chased her, and it turned into a fun game. each act in isolation was wrong. but in combination they were right. of course two wrongs don't always make a right. but could we maybe make a model for this?

if we assign positive to right and negative to wrong, we can explain this phenomenon by noting that adding two wrongs always gives a wrong, but multiplying them gives a right. adding two rights makes a right. adding a right and a wrong makes a right, wrong, or zero, depending on which act is more significant.

the caveat to this simple model is that addition would be applied when the acts are independent of each other, and multiplication when they are dependent on each other.

as another example: say person A is mean to you on a given day, and person B is nice to you that day. if A and B are independent of each other, then the overall quality of your interactions that day is the sum of the qualities of the interactions, which we will write as A+B. however, if they are dependent on each other - say, A and B coordinated their interactions with you - then the overall quality is the product A*B, because this coordination adds a sinister manipulative element to B's seemingly nice treatment of you.

so far the model seems to work decently, but there's still a problem. if both A and B coordinated with each other to be mean to you, the model incorrectly predicts this will be a 'right'. this isn't necessarily a mistake - maybe you're an asshole and A warned B. but this will add a third negative variable U (you being an asshole) to the equation, making the result negative, where it should be positive. so the model still doesn't work. maybe real life is just more complex than numbers

or maybe, we just need to use complex numbers.

assigning both positive real numbers and positive imaginary numbers to 'right', and both negative real numbers and negative imaginary numbers to 'wrong', we can get :

'right' * 'right' = 'right' (+real * +real) ( +real * +imagin)

'right' * 'right' = 'wrong' (+imagin * +imagin)

'wrong' *'wrong' = 'right' (-real * -real) ( -real * -imagin)

'wrong' * 'wrong' = 'wrong' (-imagin * -imagin)

'right' * 'wrong' = 'right' (+imagin * -imagin)

'right' * 'wrong' = 'wrong' (+real * -real) (+real * -imagin) (+imagin * -real)

in other words any two interdependent, coordinated acts can overall be either good or bad - right or wrong - depending on the exact nature of each act.

but maybe you don't wana study linear algebra just to understand the morality of fixing one wrong action with another. well, luckily for you there's another way to fix this model without relying on complex numbers!

context

we assumed that 'right' is positive and that 'wrong' is negative, but the same actions that are right in one situation may be wrong in another, and neutral in a third. in other words, you must remember the context of the situation as well as the situation itself. 'wrong' * 'wrong' = 'right' if 'wrong' and 'right' are both neutral, and it equals 'wrong' if 'wrong' is positive.

so sometimes two wrongs do make a right, but you need to use linear algebra and/or philosophy to figure out when that is.

edit: forgot to mention. if two wrongs don't make a right, this implies two rights can make a wrong ('wrong' is positive. 'right' is negative), and that a right and a wrong always make a right. this insinuation bugged me and is part of why i made this post (tho it is also a valid case in my model)

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here bestie and I'm sick of attempting to organize my life in boxes so I'm taking a salt break, because while I wholeheartedly agree that the S4 premiere was infinitely better than any other season premiere (excluding S1 of course) I have some issues, especially regarding the Malex storyline. I mean the scenes were fantastic and Tyler and Vlamis always take any trash their given and take it to the next level (Michael's face when he heard the gazebo break was pure 😭😭😭😭😭) but a lot

of things about it pissed me off. The fact that the other couples got soft/cutsie storylines buy Malex got the angsty/almost breakup storyline (let Malex be happy writers, we are TIRED), the fact that they regressed Michael to his S1 mindset (also writers stop ignoring entire seasons of development for characters to push dumb plots), the fact that the amazing interaction between Michael and Dallas was undercut by the fact Michael did NOT take his advice (writers I know you don't  remember events between episodes but that conversation happened 10 minutes before Michael saw Alex ffs). However I want to talk about most egregious offense, which is basically there is NO WAY Michael Guerin would have broken the gazebo using the scenario they gave us. First of all, you cannot tell me that when Michael learned Alex had a precious childhood relic he built with his Mom (you know that would hit him hard) the first thing he did wasn't immediately go to his workshop  build an indestructible alien glass case for it, go back to Alex's, put the gazebo in the case, and then install earthquake proof/tornado proof/ everything proof shelving to put the case on. And then he would fix, the garbage disposal. Any other scenario is bullshit. Next, even if we buy that he addressed the disposal first, there's no way Michael, professional mechanic for half his life, sat at a rickety table where his soulmate's precious relic was, equipment spread out  everywhere like a college student with their first tool set they bought from CVS, fighting a screwdriver when he could use his TK, and with a wrench placed precariously (like comically so) above said childhood relic. I mean, we got that sad little Michael face (again 😭😭😭😭😭) which was soo much, but I still call bullshit.

This is late because of vacation reasons but I’m always down to be a salty bench! So, watching the episode the first time the scenario was more believable because Vlamis fucking sells it. NO ONE is our here doing the glassy eyes/kicked puppy look like him (except for Oliver Stark). But mostly I think, as always, RNM is still suffering from the way they dragged things out with Malex originally. Using stupid side relationships for drama instead of addressing the ACTUAL reasons these two were kept apart, and the trauma responses they have much earlier on ends up with now having to revert one of them (usually Michael) back to The Before Times. And yeah, healing isn’t linear and of course something like moving and getting everything he ever wanted is going to be triggering for Michael! But since we didn’t ever get to see him and Alex really digging in and addressing this stuff before now, it feels almost like an endless cycle of Michael spiraling and Alex brushing it off. Season 3 really did them dirty by refusing to address the elephant in the room (season 2 and m*ria) and having them at each other’s throats until they were magically back together without really hashing things out. And that *might* have worked if they decided they wanted to be together and then hashed things out later, but they didn’t. It was just sort of brushed off as “they’re together now, aren’t you fans happy?” And yeah, I’m happy they’re together but the compelling part of their story, the healing and catharsis got skipped over so it’s never going to be as satisfying as it should have been.  

Also, again as always, they forget their own mythology! We saw Michael take apart and put together an incredibly intricate handmade clock full of tiny cogs and springs and alien parts! You’re telling me he couldn’t fix that gazebo good as new? Or, like you said, that he wouldn’t have made an indestructible case for something so precious to Alex? Or moved it out of the way? Or used his powers to help fix the disposal? And I will absolutely buy him being too flustered and upset to think straight for this whole thing! It does make sense that at least SOME of those things could have happened. The argument can be made on how this all makes sense, and what Michael’s state of mind was, and how his trauma responses make what happened perfectly logical, however at this point after ALL the crap they have thrown at Malex and how they keep undercutting their own narrative, and keep regressing the characters (LITERALLY Echo’s every conversation is a flavor of the same argument), it’s a lot harder to want to give any leeway. 

It was also definitely frustrating that Echo got a “when is the best time to propose” plot, while Malex got an “I immediately fucked up and Alex is probably going to kick me out and hate me” plot, but again, Echo are also still having the same basic conversation they always have so it’s not like it’s that much better for them? *deep sigh* the wasted potential for this show will never fail to frustrate me. 

[wackybuddiemewbs]

OKAY. I have WAY too many thoughts about the mid-season finale. I'm apologizing in advance for the mad rambling that's about to come. And continue. In many posts. Making little to no sense.

Anyway.

Being a hoe for angst... damn, I got treated. And damn, I got treated angst... now I'm feeling angsty. A lot. A lot a lot.

A-n-y-w-a-y.

I didn't really see Eddie quitting coming at all, to be honest. Kudos to the writers there. Even though it came as quite a shock... it's still pretty damn good and organic storytelling. They have built up the drifting apart of the team also as a result of shared and individual trauma very well thus far. Eddie “breaking out” by actually quitting the 118 seems like the first peak that may finally open up a conversation here.

A long overdue conversation.

Or five... hundred of them.

Because the lack of talking is the bane of most of it for the team, for the members of the team, particularly for Eddie and Buck.

Also, kudos for all the foreshadowing/callbacks, e.g. Eddie telling Buck that them falling out of touch isn't happening, just for it to happen. The parallels of Buck's and Eddie's recovery arc. The list continues and continues.

Also, blessed be all the metas and gifsets already out there pointing that out. Y'all are amaze-balls.

While it's painful to watch, I'm glad we actually see people being confronted with their traumas and that of their loved ones. As tough as it is, part of the process of healing is talking about it, accepting that things don't go linear in the healing process. That you have setbacks. Christopher dreams of his mom again. He is having panic over Eddie being in danger. Buck is facing some of his inner demons, dealing with his separation from Maddie and Chimney. Athena and Harry working through things, too, etc.

And I pray that Eddie finally takes the hint to find himself a therapist to click with. Coz my dude, you're so close to getting the point, and then take a sharp 180 every damn time.

You don't need another job. You need another therapist. A therapist at all.

While it's surely just a temporary measure for Eddie, I am aching to know how they are gonna tackle this whole issue. Carla basically spelled it out already: Being a firefighter is something Eddie did and does for himself. Thus, neglecting that as well as everything else he has, in favor of Christopher's wellbeing and/or comfort, is going to bite him in the perky ass. So damn much.

Not because I think it's wrong of him to take a break to sort things out with Christopher. I think it's great to see a father not just downplaying his son's trauma, doing whatever it takes to get him what he needs.

But it's a knee-jerk reaction in the end. In the course of 1 episode, Eddie decides to quit the 118. Which is more than a job. It's where his found family is. It's one of the few things he's ever decided for himself. Normally, he thinks things through more carefully, sometimes too carefully (see sticking it out with Ana. Also because of his feeling of obligation to have a “ready-made family” for his son despite not being ready for it with Ana. Coz she's not the right one). But with this, he goes straight away. He doesn't take time. He goes for it. Chop-chop.

Eddie doesn't know how to respond to Christopher's reaction and his fears regarding his father's wellbeing. But Eddie feels like he has to respond in some way, and the only thing he can come up with at that point is to quit the 118. To get out of the danger zone.

He is being triggered (operative word of especially this episode but also that whole season... I mean, how often did we hear that word spelled out this season, hmmmmm?). By that boy asking whether his dad is dead (which he isn't!). He is triggered by Chris being triggered and not knowing how to fix that. List goes on.

Because Eddie wants to fix things. Still, quitting permanently seems like such a huge step perhaps in the right direction (taking time to sort his mess after Ana left all those muffins in that kitchen. So many muffins...), but taking a wrong turn along the way. Because taking time off to search for solutions, not just going through the motions at the job, swallowing it down, that's good. That's the right thing to do.

But he also could have taken leave for a while. He could have taken off for some time, I bet Bobby would have had him covered. And I bet he knows that, too. Chim's doing it.

But Eddie seems set on punishing himself for failing his son. Because his old fear of not being good enough is back in full swing, as he expresses to Buck under the Christmas tree. Because he failed to have that relationship with Ana that he thinks made Christopher feel happy and safe. Because he got shot and Christopher was upset. Because he got panic attacks that his son got to see and deal with. Because he is not okay - and he needs to be okay to support his son.

Dude is spiraling so hard right now.

Eddie feels like he is failing Christopher, so he is seemingly also in part punishing himself for it. Because that job is important to him personally. It's more than a job. It's a calling. It's a privilege. It's a decision he made for himself. And he will give that up in a heartbeat, thinking that this will fix things for Christopher.

Spoiler alert (not really, but I'm feeling like it's gonna be just so): This is not how you're going to fix things, Eddie, my dear.

Because there is a crucial difference between responding to your child's needs and total personal self-neglect. Bobby warned him before (in relation to Shannon) that he doesn't have to lose everything before he allows himself to feel something etc. And I think that's what's happening here. He is giving up everything for his son. He neglects himself, he gives his last for his son, even that one thing aside from Christopher that he cherishes, this job.

But that's not the solution.

Because life is dangerous. That guy that got him triggered? He didn't get buried under a broken house (like that gingerbread house, hmmmmmm) while he was doing a dangerous job. He was going about his everyday life. Most of the calls are just that: People living their lives, getting caught up in sometimes strange situations. Which is not to say that firefighters have a less risky job. They do a very dangerous job. And yes, chances are higher for them to wind up hurt or dead. But I think there's a narrative undercurrent showing that Eddie is wrong by trying to find the solution in quitting this dangerous job.

Because again, life is dangerous. Life is hard. Buck and Christopher got caught in a tsunami while at the peer. He got shot responding to a call that had nothing to do with the sniper other than him having that uniform. And by quitting as a firefighter, Eddie is merely glossing over what's underneath: That he and Christopher have to have an honest conversation. About the traumas they share. About what they lost. About *why* Christopher is upset. Why it's *now* that he reacts that strongly to the potential of his father being in danger on the job. And what *other* possible solutions there are.

Eddie thinks he has to do it all alone - and that's just not true. And I think that may also be the grand Buddie sweetness in it all. Or part of it. Maybe Christopher finally gets to understand that Buck is there for him, not just in the event of Eddie's death but also living up to his promise to be there for him while Eddie is very much around. All of them talking about it... So. Much. Potential.

Makes me wonder whether they are going for a similar trajectory as we've seen for TK on Lone Star. That following an injury, he quits for a while, only to have that epiphany moment, telling him what he has to be and how to be it - and that he needs to be a first responder, that this is his calling. While I don't think that Eddie's solution is going for paramedic necessarily, I could very well see some variant of that trajectory for him.

More to the point, I can very well envision a scenario wherein Eddie e.g. sees the 118 working a job that's extremely dangerous. Maybe they are understaffed. Maybe TV is reporting. Eddie is watching at home, all nervous. Because he should be out there. He needs to be out there, but he can't. The more I think about it... maybe it really will be some variant of TK and Tommy - wherein Chris tells him that he needs to be out there, like Tommy's kids told her.

Bonus points if this involves Buck. ALL the bonus points if it's about Buck, and we get both the epiphany about the job and the Oh moment for Eddie.

A fangirl can dream!

Anyway. More posts. Less cohesiveness. Even more rambling.

See you around.

The next few months are gonna be a not so merry ride.

[an-aura-about-you]

July 28th, 2014

The Knife Cleaves and Cleaves

Frehorn and Magnus

Why do I enjoy bastards being friends so much? Is it that evil is fun? Is it knowing that Jack's offer is out of genuine affection, that he means well in his own way? I don't know what it is, but I love it. Worth mentioning that this entry has TMA typical discussion of eye gouging. If you're good with that, feel free to proceed:

“Do you know how exhausting it is to ask a question when you already know the answer?” Jack asks, slowing down slightly to take a turn.

Elias doesn’t say anything, merely waits for Jack to take the moment to look over at him. When he does, the two suddenly erupt in laughter.

“Right, preaching to the choir,” Jack says once he’s caught his breath. “But I’m serious. I don’t know if I’d even take a hand in it considering our differing opinions on the use of the Eye.” He sighs. “Or maybe I play the part I chose because of our differing opinions.”

“Still whinging about that, are you?” Elias asks. “You’ve told me this yourself: just as the past causes ripples in the future, so too does the future create ripples in the past. Even if I’m only looking through one window, I can still understand that what I am seeing exists beyond just that window.”

Jack smiles at this. “Sounds like you’ve managed to learn something.” He slows down and parks the car. “So, ready to see the property I’ve finally acquired?”

“Of course.” Elias moves to get out. “If you’ll lead the way?”

“Gladly.”

The two walk to the ruins, though that’s a generous word for it. Not much is left but scorched foundation, a few bricks indicating the outline of the mansion, and the remains of a swimming pool with some tattered bits of yellow caution tape.

But Elias can see everything.

Elias shares in savoring the knowledge. Once the moment passes, he affirms to Jack that he understands where they are with a simple, “DeFoe Manor.”

“Or what’s left of it after the fire,” Jack confirms. “I have seen the bridge completed here by one-third. My bridge, that is.”

“And its full completion?” Elias prompts, following him to the most charred spot of the ruins, the remains of the trophy room.

“I have seen that,” Jack scoffs, turning to him. “But I will no longer be here when the moment comes in its linear fashion.” He fixes Elias with a piercing stare. “And neither will you, Jonah.”

Elias meets his eyes, frowning slightly. “We probably shouldn’t fall out of keeping up appearances,” he chooses to say.

Jack shrugs. “I just tell others I forget what number is supposed to come after my name. It’s an easier lie to keep up with. But then, I’ve kept my looks, haven’t I?”

“And your fashion sensibilities. Still rooted in the 70s, aren’t they?”

“I’ve gone through three of those; you’ll have to be more specific.”

“Why have you brought me here?” Elias asks, probing as much as he pleases.

Jack shivers at the compulsion, closing his eyes and tipping his head back not in resistance but trying to hold the sensation. “I have seen the completion of your bridge,” he answers. “And I have seen the knife that will plunge into the window of the King’s Eye. But you will not.” He opens his eyes again. “I have brought you here to offer you another path to CHZO.”

There is a pause as the two men embrace that which is the King’s true spoken name, embrace what he is, the truth that pain is fear and fear pain.

Jack reaches behind and draws his knife from its sheath on his back. Elias Knew of Frehorn’s Blade, had seen it before, but seeing the serrated, key-like knife now is still a strange thrill.

“You, of all people, know that you are not just body,” Jack says, examining the notches of his blade. “My knife cleaves and cleaves. You have already left your body, Jonah. Leave it for good. Let me cleave you from body, cleave mind and soul together, cleave you to the King.”

Elias watches as Jack rests his index finger to the two larger notches at the tip of the knife.

“And in servitude to you,” Elias points out.

“Any service to me is service to the King,” Jack argues, waving the knife to and fro. “Is this because you don’t trust me or because I have already seen your death, I wonder? But if I’m the issue, you can do it yourself. It is simpler than it might seem, just-” He moves the knife like a lever at eye level, making a popping sound with his tongue as he does.

“You would put your knife in my hand?”

“And why not?” Jack asks. “Whether I trust you or not, what could you do to me with my knife that I wouldn’t want you to do?”

Elias puts his hand out as if requesting the knife. “You could end up bound to servitude to me.”

Jack makes a short laugh, twisting the tip of the knife at his finger again. “I could. And that would be service to the King as well. If you did that, would you write me up one of your contracts and everything?” He laughs again. “Jack Frehorn the 8th-or-whatever-I’m-supposed-to-be, Elias Bouchard’s Official Bitch Boy. Wouldn’t Peter get jealous?”

Elias smirks. “That might be all the more reason to do it.”

Jack turns the knife so he can offer the handle to Elias. “And you?”

“If I use my hands to cleave my mind and soul to the King, they won’t be my hands anymore,” Elias points out. “If that happens, then wouldn’t I technically be under the control of Elias Bouchard?”

“Perhaps. I haven’t worked with this exact technicality before,” Jack admits, turning the knife in his hand again so he holds the handle. “For everything I’ve see with my blade, that has not been fully explored. The other option is that I do it for you.”

“Which I will decline,” Elias answers. “At least for now.”

“Very well,” Jack says, returning the knife to its sheath.

“I will thank you for the offer, however,” Elias tells him. “It is, in your own way, a kindness.”

Jack grins at him and asks, “Have I ever shown you anything less?” He then gestures towards the other side of the ruins. “Come, I can give you the grand tour, point out all the nitty-gritty parts you’ll want to focus on.”

And with that, the two men comb through the history of the site of the bridge on the day the King can look upon them.

[nexyra]

What is your take on rwby chara's mbti types? I think

Weiss - xSTJ, thought that she was ESTJ at first but ISTJ makes a lot of sense too.

Winter - ESTJ

Pyrrha - ESFJ

Emerald - ISFJ (I've seen some ppl type her as INFJ but I don't see how she is a Ni dom?)

Whitley - ENTJ? I'm honestly not sure abt that..

Adam - fucked up xNFJ, probably INFJ (seen him typed as xNTJ but his delusional thinking process imo screams unhealthy Ti and I think his manipulation of Blake and the WF is more Fe than Te

Qrow - was thinking ISTP but with the more recent volumes I'm really not sure..

Penny - ENFP

Ozpin - Uuuuuh INTP maybe?? But I've seen some people type him as INFJ. INFJ 5w6 would make sense as to why he might appear as an INTP but idk..

Bartholomew- ENTP

Jaune - no fucking idea honestly

Ironwood - ENTJ

Sun - Seen ppl type him as ENFP but I don't see any Ne at all..,,ESFP?

Yang - ESxP, maybe ESTP

Cinder - INTJ

Mercury - ISTP

Oscar - ISFJ

Ren - ISTx?

Hello anon ! I see my love for typology hasn't gone unnoticed 😂 Thank you so much for the ask !

I prefer enneagram over MBTI because I find it easier to type; so fair warning that I'm not an authority on MBTI-typing. But I do have have an ongoing RWBY typing that includes MBTI sooo... here goes !

(I'm putting my ennea typings along with it, but not explaining them on this post)

➸ RWBYJNPR

Ruby • xNFP 6w7 9w1 2w3?

I just can't decide between the two fors Ruby because... it kind of goes both way ??? Like Ruby definitely feels as INFP for the first half of the series; she's got a clear Fi > Ne preference... But then when she develops her Tert in V6 it's just... Te ? And she really doesn't show much Si actually she fits more the Si inf vibe in the form of forgetting about bad memories and her mom until people dig it up and she's like "nooo !" ?? So it looks like Te > Si but also Fi > Ne; conclusion idfk

Weiss • ISTJ 1w2 6w5 3w4 sp/so

Clear Fi tert rearing its head along with the 1 so I'm going with ISTJ; I also never really saw any Ne. Her type isn't too disagreed upon so tell me if you want a lenghtier explanation.

Blake • ISFP 6w5 9w8 4w3 (in some order)

Wooh this might get the anger of some (i have experience with the INFJ typers) but Blake goddamn REEKS of Fi. Less so recently but for the first seasons oh my god. She straights up catch you by the shirt and tells you "I'm doing the right thing"; and said right thing is so heavily dependant on her own subjectives values, which is why Blake can't reconcile with the current White Fang; because she doesn't have a strong Je vision of "what objectively works in the end", she only sees actions in terms of immediate right and wrong, and this b&w dichotomy stems from herself. What the WF is doing is wrong and the circumstances don't matter for judging the morality of their actions (of course I'm not talking about murder here bc that's pretty wrong ALL THE TIME but for example the stealing occuring in V1 bc of the WF is a better example)

Yang • ESXP 7w8 8w7 2w3

I'm sorry about that but I can't help you on that aspect anon, I still can't make up my mind about whether Yang has Fi or Ti. I have seen arguments for both, and i'm not the best at picking up on Ti so it's hard for me to tell.

Jaune • ESFJ 6w7 3w2 9w1

No strong opinions on his MBTI, it's kinda just based on vibes

Nora • ENFP 6w7 9w8 3w2

Textbook ENFP, not much to say here x))

Pyrrha • XXFJ 2w1 1w2 6?

In my list Pyrrha is currently written down as ISFJ but that's mostly based on the general consensus and me wanting to get rid of the XX. I don't actually have any convincing arguments to decide on Ni or Si, so I could go either way if someone else makes their case well. I feel like she's Fe aux more than dom, but even about that I could change my mind. Pyrrha didn't have that much screentime in the end :((

Ren • ISTJ? 9w1 5w4 4w5

Ironically I'm not sure about his type, kind of like you. I've mentionned I'm not very good at picking up on Ti right ? And Ren was a background character before V4 really. I had him written down as ISTP for a while but I've seen some convincing arguments for ISTJ so I might lean toward that actually but who knows. The thing I'm very confident about is his 5 fix = )

➸ Faunus bonus

Sun • ESFP 7w6 2w3 9w1 so/sx

I don't see any Ne at all either so I don't understand the ENFP typings...?? Maybe the 7 stereotypes ? Imo Sun is just a very good boy; certified ESFP 7 himbo; triple positive sunshine !

Ilia • Ti-Fe axis ?

Again, not enough screentime for me to make an educated guess. My only certainty is : not high Fi. It's the source of their conflicts. Blake confidence in absolute right & wrong, tracing lines in the sand between acceptable & unacceptable. Whereas Ilia can only shake her head and say "Because it works", or cry out "I don't know what else to do !"

Adam • 3w4 8w7 6w5

I honestly don't really have much of an opinion about Adam's MBTI, i'm sorry anon ;; I don't know enough about how he thinks

➸ Oz-related things and his circle

Ozpin • INFJ 5w4 2w1 1w9

I would personally call him an INFJ. I... never really got INTP vibes from him ? I don't see the Fe inf work out with his interactions : he's always rather at ease, he knows how to navigate around people... His focus inherently lies on doing what's best for the "group", the people, humanity. Fx functions are both concerned with ethics, in different ways, and I think Oz reflects that well. He IS concerned with the moral weight of his actions, but it's a more adaptable and unpersonnal concern than Fi people. He regards Ironwood's soul machines as something wrong, but can still agree to use it if the situations demand it for example. So... if the INFJ + 5 makes sense to you, well that's what I'm typing him personally. I also feel like Ni fits him more than Ne. Ozpin has a very linear way of planning, he does use his fair share of symbolism in every day conversation... Even when taking decisions, he... kind of cares about the meaning of things a lot ? It's hard to explain but like; the way he highlights the difference between an army and a guardian, and the emotionnal response it brings. I don't know it feels like there's some Ni vibes in there x)

Oscar • ISFJ 9w8 6w7 3w2

Oscar's type honestly isn't the one I would have the easiest time explaining in lenght but yea. It's mostly vibes; also just like Ozpin he doesn't seem to have a particularly Fi reasonning. And he feels more grounded, I don't really remember any Ni so... yay ?

Ironwood • ENFJ 6w5 1w2 3w4 (pre-Vol8); ENTJ (post-Vol8)

Might be weird if you think he was a dictator from the start, but I kind of entertained the idea of Ironwood being Fe dom ? From his very first interaction it was very clear that he was a Je dom to me; he's all about objective results; he doesn't give off the "internal framework" or "personnal values" vibe AT ALL; so it was more a matter of picking Te or Fe. He LOOKS super Te don't get me wrong; but he also has an enneagram tritype that is very common amongst XXTJs (and TJs stereotypes thus derive from it). And just like Oz, his focus at all time seemed to be the greater good and doing what's best for the people still. So I was like... Eh, a "harsh" ENFJ I think that's interesting ? Plus Fe ethics actually derive from their environment, kinda like "everyone agrees that Y is wrong", and if you consider that James is from Atlas... Well his way of thinking and ethics align pretty well with the military.

His character took a turn for the worse in V8 (whether too quick or not depends on who you ask) and past that point he's a clear ENTJ; but I feel like it was more debatable before that. Idk though I might be overthinking this in the hope of making more interesting combinations xD

Qrow • ISTP 4w3 6w7? 1w9? sp/sx

I don't really see anything else than ISTP for Qrow... But he's not a character I would want to find Ti arguments for either.

Raven • ENTJ Cp6w5 8w9 3w4

Most villains get called ENTJ at the first occasions tbh zlqfznhqzkf but I think it fits Raven for the most part actually...

➸ Atlas

Winter • ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w5

The whole Schnee family has the same enneagram tritype in different order/different wings, it's ridiculous I think she has a higher Te than Weiss, and Fi inf fits her more. She struggles more to reconcile with her emotions and the idea of a personal right/wrong than her little sis.

Penny • ENFP 4w3 6w7 9w1 sx/so

Perfect example of a healthy 4, she's a great friend a cutie pie. ... Sorry we were talking about MBTI x) Well again, textbook ENFP. Not much to debate here.

Whitley • 3w4 1w9 6w5?

Not enough material for me to guess a MBTI type correctly either, sorry... I could see some kind of xNTJ yea but it's really just vibes and not enough concrete.

➸ Antagonists and Extras

Cinder • 8w7 3w4 6w5

Never cared to guess her MBTI type. I hereby type her as insufferable qkfqskfq. More seriously, I don't really know sorry Anon :/

Emerald • 2w3 ?w? ?w?

I never got Fe vibes from her tbh, I just think she's a 2. And Fe as a function is very infused with 2 stereotypes. So yea. Like, she isn't even that worried about the morality of her actions or anything more than the other villains. She just cares more about her personal relationships and being loved, so she automatically looks much nicer, especially with 2 mechanisms of trying to make herself useful and needed. Also because she's surrounded by 8-ish people xD

Mercury • 8w9 7w8 ?w?

ISTP doesn't sound too farfeteched, but I never MBTI-typed him either, sorry.

+

Bartholomew Oobleck • xSxJ 5w4

The only vibe he gave me is Si somewhere because of all his talks about learning from the past and everything repeats itself and it's a mine of informations at Mountain Glen... That's really the only time I tried to put down anything for him, and it was Si + 5. He could be some kind of xNTP nerd too for sure, but that's more vibe and I couldn't make an actual argument for it.

[kris-p-banana-bread]

Here DOAFP fandom, have some organic, locally-sourced, home-grown pain. This is basically just me, a scarred older sibling, projecting on Bobby, another scarred older sibling. I really reached into my post-loss psyche for this, so I hope you enjoy the headcanons and meta (AKA I hope you shed at least one tear).

It won’t let me link it here so the post that inspired this is under the read more at the bottom ✨

- When I first watched doafp, I couldn't understand Elena's aversion to Sam becoming a prominent figure in her mom's and her life. Now I understand it almost too perfectly. There was never supposed to be someone after Robert. He and Gabi were deeply in love and happy. Robert was it; he was the first and true love of Gabi's life. Sam showing up probably felt like a huge and utterly disrespectful slap in the face of Robert's memory, because he wasn't even supposed to be there. I don't know if that's as eloquent as I wish it was, or if it makes sense, and it probably sounds really mean to Sam, but it's not even really about him. It was always supposed to be Robert; Sam hasn’t earned the right to be apart of or associated with her family

- After Robert dies, Gabi and Bobby make it a habit to find and keep photos and recordings/videos of Robert, even if the latter only has him saying one sentence. They won't make Elena join them for the search, but after they find some of those old audios of Robert, they'll sometimes play them back for little Elena

- Bobby put up the keep out sign (I credit this to a few other blogs for discussing this tho) because that's where he would cry sometimes. He actually used to be pretty close with Elena, but after he put up that sign and started distancing himself from them a bit so they wouldn't see the times he cracked, he got a little more short and jaded with her. It's that, plus just growing into a teenager and stuff. And I'm not saying that he and Elena have a bad relationship, but he's become more snappy and has more walls up than he used to

- Sometimes Elena feels bad because she doesn't always remember her dad's voice. She was pretty young when he died, so even though she recalls it a bit, and the recordings help, it's been a while since she's talked to him in person, so of course she doesn't quite remember what it's like to actually talk to Robert and she's forgotten some of his mannerisms. She likes to think she's all done (she marked the stages down in her grief journal after all) but grief isn't linear or all that rational, so it hits her hard sometimes

- I keep reading as an action close to my heart because that's a strong bond me and my mom shared. She would rec books to me, and we would joke and talk about them, or she would hint to some future event and then refuse to tell me until I caught up to that part. So Elena and Bobby do something similar in their grief. Elena has writing and words, because that's something Robert loved if I remember correctly (but if I’m not and that’s not canon, then I now declare it so) and Bobby has tennis. But besides tennis (I sent a couple anons to @freshlybakedfandoms about it but I'm not sure where she went) Bobby also was taught to play guitar by Robert (I liken it to Devi Vishwakumar and her harp) so when he misses his dad or is just sad, he'll take out his dad's old acoustic and strum

- (This next one is something I also think a lot about so this is pretty much 98% projection) Bobby thinks sometimes about the fact that he was never able to come out to his dad. He hadn't really started growing into that part of himself yet, and he never got to show it to his father. He wonders what he would have thought of him. Would he be angry? Would he dismiss him and say it was just a phase? Bobby didn't think so, but a little part of him insisted that you could never be too sure. After he comes out, Gabi and Cami assure him that Robert would've been so proud of him and would've loved him regardless (Since we know virtually nothing about him, I maintain that Robert was one of those dads who teases their kid relentlessly about their crushes and I think he would've done that with Bobby and eventually Elena)

- When Elena's quince rolls around (if she chooses to have one of course), Sam dances with her during the father-daughter dance. A part of her still hurts, still aches and wishes that Robert were dancing with her too; still knows on some fundamental level that he and Gabi had planned for this day, but he had simply never made it. But she's known Sam long enough that she feels comfortable here. Nobody can replace Robert, but Sam is her family, and it feels right like this.

- I might do some more research and deliberate, but for the moment I'm saying that Robert had cancer, I’m thinking along the lines of colon. My mom was terminal, but idk if I should make Robert terminal? Maybe towards the end. Or maybe he was diagnosed as incurable early on but Gabi kept it from the kids because, tbh, being told your parent is balancing on that kind of edge is traumatic for them. So anyways, I’m going on that assumption for this last point, and I’ll see if I can recover some of my old knowledge and talk about technical stuff later if anybody would like to hear it

- Elena and Bobby were both pretty young. Bobby understood about PET scans and tests somewhat, and knew generally what different answers from doctors meant. Elena mainly just understood what was happening by reading her parents' and brother's expressions when getting lab results in from the doctor. They both remember on some level what it was like when Gabi would leave the kids with Cami and take Robert out to the car (later she would have to help him) and they would all feel like they were holding their breath until they got back and confirmed that everything was ok (and later, the little shocks of fear when the answers were no longer as positive and there was more apprehension and risks. After all, cancer doesn’t deal in absolutes)

- Bobby can still remember Robert when he had to stop walking around a lot. He still remembers the phone call that Cami got from his mom, saying that something had gone wrong, and if this last treatment didn’t work, he wouldn’t have much time before he passed. Still remembers Cami rushing into a room when she got that call, and trying to hide what was happening until Gabi could get home and explain it; but Bobby was a sharp kid believe it or not. He heard about the treatment, heard Cami crying. He still had hope... but when Robert came home in a gurney, when he could barely stay awake sometimes, when his voice was quiet and his skin was a little jaundiced, Bobby felt incredibly empty. But Robert always had a smile for his wife and his beautiful kids, even if it was small and very tired, his eyes still crinkled the same. He always had a smile; right up until they had to say goodnight and get some sleep one night. And then... he passed.

- After he passed, the Cañero-Reeds needed help, and a lot of Gabi’s coworkers would bring food or materials if they were running low. Cami and Danielle would babysit and would distract the kids when Gabi needed a good cry.

- Like you’d imagine, and because of what is sort of implied in canon and in my own head, the kids dealt with it in different ways. Bobby put up that sign, and withdrew. He wasn’t awful, but his patience with certain people got a bit shorter and he was a bit quieter. And he was a really good helper when he had the energy and he cared deeply, but he would sometimes get physically and emotionally exhausted after helping Gabi/Elena/Cami/anybody else with something and would go into his room or mentally tap out to recharge. He took comfort in things that seemed natural and that he sometimes took for granted before, like video games and skateboarding (hehe bobby skateboards. Anybody second me on this?) and clothes etc... and other stuff. A lot of materialistic things or experiences that he would skip out on before. But they bring normalcy back to his life now so he loves them for that.

- Bobby doesn’t wanna think about big themes or anything anymore, which I can’t remember but I think it was Vi (freshlybakedfandoms, again, idk where she is and I hope she’s ok) who said he was a math and science person and I think that as much as that could transfer over to those subjects as well, it’s much harder to avoid existential and emotional themes in English and History class and Bobby doesn’t like it as much as Elena does for that reason. He had to live with the back and forth of his dad’s treatments and tests, so math and science is comforting because it’s more concrete (There could be a million arguments for why he would distrust math and science because of his dad’s passing though, I realize) Ultimately, though, it reminds him of Robert too much.

- On the other hand, after a period of shock and confusion, Elena threw herself into new things. First it was a grief journal, to make sure she was going through the motions. Then she read a lot, and when she felt too alone or like she wasn’t doing enough, like she was stagnant, she’d just find something to focus and persevere on again. That feels like her personality type to me; something is wrong so let’s fix it right away. But that could also transfer sort of negatively into “Something feels off or I’m very sad, let’s get this thing done and be productive so we can put off having to confront that but at least we get work out of it” but I could be entirely wrong (this is based off some of my family members and how they dealt with the loss.) And Elena throws herself into history and english because her dad loved it, and she wants to remember more of him. Because she believes words have power and history is a lesson and that’s incredibly interesting for her

[descendant-of-truth]

So, just recently, I found got into Kid Icarus and found your blog! It's given me some amazing Pit and Dark Pit content to think about. Anyway, my question for you is: Besides the opening, do you think Pit and Dark Pit interacted in World of Light? How did Pit react when he woke up without him or Palutena? Was he the one to save Dark Pit? I like to think so, regardless of what I've seen a few people say. Sorry if you don't take Kid Icarus asks anymore, but I just needed to know!

Okay so first I just wanna say that I'm glad you liked my Kid Icarus posts! And even though it's been a while since I've posted about it, I still love the game a bunch. So, anyone can always send me asks about stuff I haven't posted about in a while!

Now, moving on to your question - the World of Light was a huge missed opportunity for character interaction all across the board. I understand that there are a lot more characters to juggle than there were in Brawl, and a fully realized story mode would be a lot more linear than the free-form world map that we got, but it just seems weird to have such a dramatic starting cutscene and then just... not continue with it.

I'm not gonna sit here and write an entire story mode, because that would be getting wildly off-track, but the game gives us just enough content to let us extrapolate how our angels are doing.

Starting with that first cutscene: we can see from the blue glow on their wings that Palutena is actually directing both of their flight paths, implying that she's improved her power of flight since Uprising. Possibly for this very purpose?

As she flies them off to safety, you can clearly see Pit looking back towards her - he clearly doesn't want to leave her behind, but it's not his choice to make. Even Dark Pit looks like his head is angled slightly towards her, but of course he doesn't show his feelings as obviously as Pit.

We all know what happens next. Palutena's barrier fails, she vanishes, and with her gone, our angels fall.

Poetically enough, Pit and Palutena end up being controlled by Galeem while Dark Pit is taken over by Dharkon. How Dharkon got ahold of people that Galeem took out is beyond me, but I'm not here to fix plot holes.

Pit is the first of the three to be rescued, and wouldn't you know it, he's found in a ruined Skyworld.

For him to wake up to see that his home has been destroyed again, with Palutena and Dark Pit nowhere in sight, saying that he'd be distressed is an understatement. The main thing keeping him together would be that he isn't alone - he has Kirby and whoever else he's rescued at this point.

(I personally like to think that the cast eventually divides into groups so that they can cover more ground because that map is huge and it would make for better storytelling)

Without his usual support group, I'd imagine that Pit would spend a lot of this journey being antsier than usual. He of course wants to save everyone, and pursues that goal with the same determination as always, but getting Palutena and Dark Pit back is personal. The same most likely goes for Viridi, whose Spirit he probably equips at all times. Can Spirits talk?? Because if they can, that would definitely alleviate some stress.

By the time Dharkon shows up, our heroes have scoured what looks to be a whole continent and then some, and still no angel or goddess in sight. At this point, Pit's gotta be pretty frustrated with his lack of progress, so he practically dives into the portal that Dharkon opens up.

Fun fact: Dark Pit is an absolute pain to unlock because he's found in the trickiest sub-map in the game. Which happens to be Dracula's Castle.

He's specifically on one of the rooftops, which tells me that the fight where Pit saves him would look amazing and it's one more reason why we deserved a proper story mode but whatever.

After so many trials and tribulations, Dark Pit is finally saved! This isn't a proper fanfiction so I don't have time to go over how great their reunion would be, but ideally there'd be a hug in there somewhere, maybe some banter amidst all the feels.

But Dark Pit has more important feelings than fluff to deal with at this point, like rage. Ironically enough, he was the only one of Ultimate's Kid Icarus trio to not get possessed during Uprising, and he's not exactly fond of it now. He made such a big deal over how he didn't want to be anyone's puppet, and now look at what happened.

(Pit can relate because wow, becoming a mindless slave to a god of light sure does hit close to home, doesn't it)

With their combined determination to rescue Palutena and defeat yet another pair of gods, the two of them aggressively tag-team their way through the rest of the story mode until they reach Palutena. Which just so happens to be during the final act of the game.

This wonderfully chaotic place is the battleground for Galeem and Dharkon. And Palutena is placed pretty close to the starting point, which means we'll get to have her around for the whole level! It's what she deserves after being separated for so long.

Now, the game mode itself doesn't let you do multiplayer (as far as I'm aware), but I say to heck with that, it's more narratively satisfying to have both angels save her.

This time around, we might not get hugs unless Palutena initiates it. Pit's too respectful and Dark Pit's not very affectionate to begin with. But the point is that they're finally together again, which means they get to be a triple threat.

Another fun fact: both angels would have been entirely grounded this whole time. They simply can't fly without Palutena's magic, which makes me wonder how many fights you could win without using their recovery move. But now that they can fly again?? Pure chaos.

The banter is in full swing with Palutena back, the entire Smash Bros roster is here with them, and somehow this goes better than the last time. Was there ever a plot explanation as to why? Who cares! I just wrote several hundred words about Kid Icarus again and that's all that really matters anyway

So, to summarize: Pit didn't do so great when he woke up without the others, he absolutely saved Dark Pit and they had many interactions, and they then proceeded to free Palutena together because that's just what makes the most sense with what we were given.

[helosther-blog1]

ok my brain isn't working rn so I can't go in2 as much detail as id like but calhoun's game is pretty intense, and she's aware the bugs pose an actual real and dangerous threat; their programming means they don't realize it's a game so if any one escapes the game/etc, it could spell disaster for the rest of the arcade. i think having Joel + crew being self-aware mostly actually depends on whether they go thru the cords and socialize w other games, as well as y Cal knows the bugs r so dangerous

(2) like are games jsut aware they're games? or do they travel thru the cord and socialize w other games and put it together that way? also, all the games can look out at the arcade thru the screen; ralph does between games and during the end game/etc, vanellope does when she's selected, etc; joel and crew probably see a good deal of the outside thru the screen- but that raises more questions because arcade games tend to have fixed perspectives instead of cameras we can move 

(3) actually the fixed perspective vs mobile cameras is solved in the movie, im a dunce: when the kids play cal's game, one of the soldiers is a robot w a big screen that shows the player's perspective, joel and crew probably experience something like that, possibly a floating/hovering screen 

(4) since in canon a good deal of characters interact w and even visit other games; most of the characters meet up at that one bartending game, im sure they have other hangouts, the homeless unplugged games that hang out in the surgeprotector or w/e which is a huge train-station-like hub w lots of characters wandering to and fro between games, which also raises the question- how far can they go? can arcade games reach console games thru the cords?

(5) if anything i think arcade games might hve LESS control; every day, ralph gets beaten by felix and sneered upon by the residents, cal and the soldiers guide the players into the tower. with characters like joel has a lot of customization. even more so w console games like fallout, the tes games, etc

outofluck;

This is a bit of a long post so I’m gonna put my response under the cut. Thank you so much for these asks!

When you say “their programming means they don’t realize it’s a game” do you mean the Cybugs? I always assumed that the Cybugs didn’t realize they were in a game not because they weren’t informed, but because they weren’t programmed with human-like intelligence / were only meant to be beasts. I feel like, thinking of TLOU, the animals and the infected would be the same. They don’t show any intelligence beyond the animalistic so that’s all they’re capable of. People like Joel, Ellie, Sarah, etc. would be different because they aren’t made to be beasts. They’re meant to have emotional responses and “think” logically.

I hope I understand what you’re saying. I forgot that the characters can see through the screens so, you’re right. Joel and the rest are probably aware of being in game to some degree. They’re probably followed by a robot, too, since the camera can be moved and one would have to be present for the cutscenes, BUT the difference is that TLOU isn’t first-person. The player isn’t some unnamed, unseen character. They control Joel and Ellie in the game much like Felix is controlled by the players / has to submit control of himself to the player while the game is being used. So, in that sense, if they don’t want to get shut down, Joel and Ellie have to let themselves be controlled.

But, as shown when Ralph goes missing, characters don’t have to allow the player to control them. They can physically take control of themselves if they try hard enough and wiggle the joystick or whatever themselves to fight against what the player wants. So, technically, if Joel got sick and tired of watching people he cares about die or Ellie get hurt, he could just say “fuck this” and force the control out of the hand of the player. Of course, the player would think the game is glitched and it would cause issues for them, but it’s possible. 

As for traveling between games, I imagine that, for instance, characters played on a single console have an easier time visiting each other. They could just hop through the console’s memory to reach whatever game slot they wanted. Hopping from console to arcade game might be more difficult, but I imagined that they could, theoretically, travel through any power source. A chord traveling to an outlet, perhaps, could eventually lead them to an outlet that goes to one of the arcade games or the surge protector strip. Maybe it’s just harder or more dangerous?

Also I’m not sure about the arcade games having less freedom. Even though TLOU allows slightly more room for the player to do whatever they want, it’s still linear and everyone still has to constantly relive traumatic events for the story to progress.

I hope what I said makes sense? I feel like I’m trying to cover multiple topics that may or may not connect.